In this review, I'm going to share my analysis and evaluation from hands-on experience with monday.com. But first, if you're just beginning your search for the best product management tools, check out my picks of the best product management tools.
You probably already know monday.com is among the most popular product management tools out there, but you need to better understand what's good and not so good about it. This in-depth monday.com review will walk you through the pros and cons, features, and functionality, to help guide you to better understand its capabilities and suitability for your scenario.
Summary: monday.com
monday.com is a cloud-based project management software and workflow platform. Teams across various industries use monday.com to plan projects, track progress, manage resources, and collaborate efficiently. It helps with task assignments, project planning, time tracking, budgeting, and reporting.
monday.com alleviates tedious tasks and poor visibility into task status, difficulty managing workload across teams, and ineffective communication. Its best features are customizable templates and workflows, integrations with other apps, automated notifications, visual dashboards, and mobile access.
monday.com Pros
- Ease of Use: monday.com has an intuitive and user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create and manage tasks.
- Customization: The platform allows for a high degree of customization, enabling teams to tailor their workflows to their specific needs.
- Collaboration: monday.com facilitates seamless collaboration among team members with features like mentions, comments, and file sharing.
monday.com Cons
- Limited Reporting: monday.com's reporting capabilities are somewhat limited compared to other product management tools.
- Learning Curve: While the interface is user-friendly, there is still a learning curve for users to become proficient with all of the features and customization options.
- Mobile App: The mobile app version of monday.com has limited functionality compared to the desktop version.
monday.com Expert Opinion
In my view, monday.com stands out among product management tools for its exceptional flexibility and customization options that enable teams to tailor the platform to their unique workflows. Its intuitive interface, powerful automation capabilities, and integrations also facilitate more efficient collaboration compared to many competitors.
However, that versatility comes with a higher price tag and steeper learning curve than simpler, more straightforward tools. At $9/user/month, monday.com is notably more expensive than entry-level plans from Trello, ClickUp, and Asana.
For large organizations juggling multiple complex products, that cost could justify the value. But smaller teams with straightforward products are likely better served by more affordable, focused PM tools that prioritize ease of use over advanced customization. Consider your product complexity and budget closely when evaluating if monday.com fits your needs.
Why Trust Our Software Reviews
We've been testing and reviewing product management tools since 2019. As product managers ourselves, we know how critical and difficult it is to make the right decision when selecting software.
We invest in deep research to help our audience make better software purchasing decisions. We've tested more than 2,000 tools for different product management use cases and written over 1,000 comprehensive software reviews. Learn how we stay transparent & our software review methodology.
Are You a Good Fit for monday.com?
Who Would Be a Good Fit for monday.com?
monday.com is best for mid-sized to large teams that need flexible project management, task tracking, and collaboration tools. Its visual and customizable interface makes it easy for cross-functional teams to plan projects, assign tasks, track project progress, and communicate. Teams that follow Agile or Scrum methodologies will find its sprint planning and execution features useful. Similarly, fast-growing companies that need a scalable solution as their teams and projects expand would also benefit from monday.com's flexibility.
Who Would Be a Bad Fit for monday.com?
Small businesses or individuals with basic project management needs may find monday.com too feature-heavy and expensive. Similarly, companies that require specialized tools for resource management, budgeting, or reporting may need to integrate third-party tools, as monday.com's native functionality in those areas is limited. Organizations with strict data security and privacy needs may also prefer an on-premise or single-tenant hosted solution rather than monday.com's multi-tenant cloud.
Best Use Cases for monday.com
- Creative Agencies: The highly visual and customizable interface is ideal for creative teams to plan campaigns and collaborate on designs.
- Mid-Sized Companies: Feature set can handle complex workflows and projects for organizations with 40+ employees across multiple departments.
- Marketing Teams: Built-in CRM functionality and the ability to track tasks, budgets, and workloads all in one place works well for marketing.
- Client Services: Can easily share project boards with external clients and stakeholders for transparency and input.
- Remote Teams: Cloud access from anywhere and integration with communication tools enable effective remote collaboration and tracking.
- Multiple Projects: Can create separate workspaces for different projects and departments while maintaining high-level visibility across the company.
Worst Use Cases for monday.com
- Software Development: Lacks some key features for Agile development, bug tracking, and release management compared to specialized tools like Jira.
- Small Teams: Can be overkill and pricey for small teams with fairly basic project management needs that could be handled in a spreadsheet.
- Non-Tech Savvy: The many customization options and features come with a learning curve that can overwhelm non-technical team members.
- Solopreneurs: Freelancers and solo operations likely don't need the collaboration features and would be paying for more than they use.
- Highly Regulated Industries: May not meet the security and compliance requirements for sensitive data in government, healthcare, and financial services.
- Manufacturing: Not built to handle the unique processes, inventory management, and supply chain needs of manufacturing operations.
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monday.com Evaluation Summary
- Core Functionality: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Standout Features: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Ease of Use: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Onboarding: ⭐⭐⭐
- Customer Support: ⭐⭐⭐
- Integrations: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Customer Reviews: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Value for Money: ⭐⭐⭐
Review Methodology
We're a team of software experts who obsess about the features and functionality of different platforms. We know how critical—yet difficult and confusing—software selection can be. We test and score software to find the best solutions, whatever the use case may be.
Using our objective, data-driven testing methodology, we've tested 300+ software. We dedicate ourselves to being objective in fully and fairly testing software, to get beyond the marketing fluff and truly understand the platform.
We've developed robust testing scenarios to use the software in the same way you will. We leverage our own first-hand, practical experience with the tools, complemented by interviews with users, experts, and software vendors.
How We Test & Score Product Management Tools
We've spent years building, refining, and improving our software testing and scoring system for product management tools. The rubric is designed to capture the nuances of software selection and what makes product management tools effective, focusing on critical aspects of the decision-making process.
Below, you can see exactly how our testing and scoring work across eight criteria. It allows us to provide an unbiased evaluation of the software based on core functionality, standout features, ease of use, onboarding, customer support, integrations, customer reviews, and value for money.
Core Functionality (20% of final scoring)
For product management tools, the core functionality we test and evaluate are:
- Roadmapping: Ability to create and share visual product roadmaps.
- User stories: Capability to write and organize user stories and requirements.
- Prioritization: Tools to prioritize features and initiatives based on business value.
- Collaboration: Enables team members to communicate and work together effectively.
- Reporting: Generates reports and dashboards to track progress and KPIs.
- Integrations: Connects with other tools in the product stack like Jira, Slack, etc.
Standout Features (20% of final scoring)
We evaluate uncommon, standout features that go above and beyond the core functionality defined and typically found in product management tools. A high score reflects specialized or unique features that make the product faster, more efficient, or offer additional value to the user.
Ease of Use (10% of final scoring)
We consider how quick and easy it is to execute the tasks defined in the core functionality using the product management tools. High-scoring software is well designed, intuitive to use, offers mobile apps, provides templates, and makes relatively complex tasks seem simple.
Onboarding (10% of final scoring)
We know how important rapid team adoption is for a new platform, so we evaluate how easy it is to learn and use the product management tools with minimal training. We evaluate how quickly a team member can get set up and start using the software with no experience. High-scoring software indicates little or no support is required.
Customer Support (10% of final scoring)
We review how quick and easy it is to get unstuck and find help by phone, live chat, or knowledge base. Product management tools that provide real-time support score best, while chatbots score worst.
Integrations (10% of final scoring)
We evaluate how easy it is to integrate with other tools typically found in the tech stack to expand the functionality and utility of the software. Product management tools offering plentiful native integrations, 3rd party connections, and API access to build custom integrations score best.
Customer Reviews (10% of final scoring)
Beyond our own testing and evaluation, we consider the net promoter score from current and past customers. We review their likelihood, given the option, to choose the product management tools again for the core functionality. A high-scoring software reflects a high net promoter score from current or past customers.
Value for Money (10% of final scoring)
Lastly, in consideration of all the other criteria, we review the average price of entry-level plans against the core features and consider the value of the other evaluation criteria. Software that delivers more, for less, will score higher.
Through this comprehensive approach, I aim to identify product management tools that not only meet but exceed expectations, ensuring teams have the tools they need to succeed
monday.com Review
Core Product Management Tools Functionality
Task Management: monday.com allows you to manage all your product tasks in one centralized location. You can assign owners, due dates, priority levels, dependencies, and more to ensure your team delivers on time.
Visual Workflows: Using customizable boards, teams can map out each stage of their workflow and define the specific actions needed to move work forward at each step. Options like Kanban board views and Gantt chart views provide flexibility to adapt the workflow view to the team's needs.
Collaboration and Communication: Team members can communicate directly on tasks using updates, mentions, and comments. monday.com also offers collaborative docs for meeting notes, brainstorming, and planning, as well as an activity log for transparency into who made what changes and when.
Resource Management: monday.com's workload view provides visibility into what each team member is working on and their capacity. Tasks can be assigned to owners with applicable due dates, while time tracking capabilities allow users to log the hours spent on each task.
Reporting and Analytics: High-level dashboards show progress towards key goals and milestones. More than 20 chart types, including workload, tasks by person, overdue tasks, and more, allow users to see into specific KPIs and metrics. Additionally, reports are shareable and updated in real-time as underlying data changes.
Automation and Integrations: monday.com offers a library of pre-built automation recipes to eliminate manual work like status changes, notifications, and moving items between boards. Custom automation can also be built, while two-way syncs and integrations with other tools help centralize product info.
monday.com Standout Features
No-Code Automation: monday.com stands out for its powerful no-code automation engine. Non-technical teams can automate repetitive tasks like notifications, status changes, and cross-board updates with a simple point-and-click interface.
Work Visualization for Multiple Stakeholders: Boards on monday.com can be easily shared with internal and external stakeholders like executives, cross-functional partners, and clients. Different views like Gantt, Kanban, timeline, and more provide relevant info for each audience.
Ease of Use
I find monday.com easier to use than most other product management tools I've tested. The software's visual interface is intuitive with drag-and-drop functionality for building workflows. Additionally, its pre-built templates help teams get started quickly on their assignments. Deep customization is available but not required, allowing teams to adapt the tool to their needs over time without a steep learning curve.
Onboarding
monday.com offers both self-serve and guided onboarding options. An extensive knowledge base with videos and tutorials allows self-starters to learn the basics. For those needing more assistance, monday.com has a dedicated customer success team that provides individualized consultations, live training webinars, and best practices guidance. This high-touch approach sets monday.com apart and helps get teams up and running quickly.
Customer Support
monday.com provides multiple avenues for customer support such as email, 24/7 phone support for customers on the Pro plan and above, and live chat support is accessible from any page within the tool.
The monday.com website features an extensive product help center, a community forum, and searchable support articles. The company maintains a public product roadmap and transparent status page to communicate planned downtime and new feature releases.
Integrations
monday.com integrates natively with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Google Calendar, Dropbox, Google Drive, Excel, Trello, Jira, Asana, Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zapier, and more.
An open API allows developers to build custom integrations and apps. The monday.com apps marketplace provides a library of pre-built custom widgets and integrations. Zapier and Integromat support also enables connecting to thousands of additional tools.
Value for Money
monday.com's pricing structure falls on the higher end of the spectrum compared to the average cost for product management and collaboration tools. While not the most expensive option, its plans are priced at a premium.
monday.com offers the following pricing plans:
- Individual Plan: A free version for up to 2 seats. This includes up to 3 boards, unlimited documents, 200+ templates, 8 column types, and both iOS and Android apps.
- Basic Plan: $9/seat/month (billed annually). This includes all the perks of the free plan, plus unlimited free viewers, 5GB of file storage, prioritized customer support, and unlimited items.
- Standard Plan: $12/seat/month (billed annually). This includes all the Basic plan features, plus Timeline and Gantt views, guest access, additional integrations, and more.
- Pro Plan: $19/seat/month. This includes all the Standard plan features, plus private boards, time tracking, formula column, and chart views.
- Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing. This includes all the Pro plan features, plus multi-level permissions, enterprise-grade security and governance, and tailored onboarding.
All paid plans require a minimum of 3 seats. The Free plan is quite limited in features. To access the full set of project and task management capabilities, the Standard or Pro plans are required, which represents a significant monthly cost for teams.
While not cheap, monday.com aims to provide value through an extensive feature set, customizability, and ease of use to justify its premium pricing. But cost-conscious shoppers can likely find more affordable alternatives with comparable core functionality.
Product Specifications
Feature | monday.com |
Product Roadmapping | ✅ |
Task and Project Management | ✅ |
Idea Nanagement | ✅ |
Resource Management | ✅ |
Team Collaboration | ✅ |
Reporting and Analytics | ✅ |
Third-Party Integrations | ✅ |
Single Page Applications | ❌ |
Gantt Charts | ✅ |
Agile Methodologies | ✅ |
Product Wiki | ❌ |
Wireframing | ❌ |
Budgeting Capabilities | ✅ |
Time Tracking | ✅ |
monday.com Alternatives
If you're looking for alternative product management tool options to monday.com, here are a few worth checking out:
- Productboard: Focused on product roadmapping, prioritization, and user feedback analysis, but has fewer project management features compared to monday.
- Aha!: Geared towards strategic planning and idea management with advanced roadmapping capabilities, but offers less flexibility for general task tracking.
- Wrike: Provides robust project management and resource planning features suited for enterprises, but comes at a higher price point than monday.com.
- Asana: Offers customizable workspaces for task planning and team collaboration with strong integrations and automation, but has fewer built-in product management-specific views and reports.
monday.com FAQs
What is monday.com?
monday.com is a cloud-based work OS that enables teams to plan, track, and collaborate on projects and tasks in a visual interface. It provides customizable building blocks like boards, columns, automation, and integrations that adapt to your team’s workflows. monday.com is built to connect people to processes and drive a culture of transparency.
Is there a mobile app for monday.com?
Yes, monday.com offers mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. The mobile app allows you to access your boards, update tasks, communicate with your team, and get notifications on the go. You can work offline and all changes will sync when you’re back online. The app has most of the features and functionality of the web platform.
Is monday.com HIPAA compliant?
Yes, monday.com offers HIPAA-compliant plans for customers who need to comply with privacy regulations for protected health information (PHI). When you sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), monday.com ensures the appropriate safeguards are in place, including encryption of PHI data at rest and in transit. Your team must use the platform responsibly under HIPAA rules.
Is monday.com SOC 2 compliant?
Yes, monday.com has completed a SOC 2 Type II audit. This means an independent auditor has validated that monday.com meets the security, availability, confidentiality, processing integrity, and privacy controls defined in the SOC 2 standard. The report assures that monday.com appropriately safeguards customer data.
Is monday.com secure?
Yes, monday.com employs an in-depth security approach to protect customer data:
- All data is encrypted at rest and in transit
- Role-based access controls ensure the least privileged access
- Systems are monitored 24/7 to detect and respond to threats
- Regular penetration tests and security audits are conducted
- monday.com is certified compliant with standards like ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA
Is monday.com FedRAMP certified?
No, monday.com does not currently have FedRAMP certification. FedRAMP is a government security standard required for cloud services used by US federal agencies. While not officially certified, monday.com does implement security controls and practices that align with many FedRAMP requirements as part of its overall security and compliance program.
Is monday.com GDPR compliant?
Yes, monday.com is committed to GDPR compliance as a data processor. It has implemented the necessary technical and organizational measures to protect the rights of data subjects and secure personal data processed through the platform. monday.com offers a Data Processing Addendum (DPA) to govern its handling of customer data under GDPR.
Can I run monday.com on my own servers?
No, monday.com is a multi-tenant SaaS platform hosted in the secure AWS cloud. There is no option for on-premise or self-hosted deployments. All customers access the same platform infrastructure, while data is logically segregated between accounts. For customers with data residency requirements, monday.com offers hosting in certain regions like the US and EU.
monday.com Company Overview & History
monday.com is a cloud-based platform that provides tools for project management, collaboration, and workflow automation. It is a privately held software as a service (SaaS) company headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel with additional offices in New York City, San Francisco, Miami, and Sydney. The company has over 1,000 employees worldwide.
monday.com's flagship product is a flexible project management tool that allows teams to create custom workflows and collaborate in real time. The platform is used by over 225,000 organizations across 200 industries in 200 countries.
The company is known for its colorful, user-friendly interface and no-code/low-code customization capabilities. It has won multiple awards for its product and workplace, including being named one of Gartner's 2021 Magic Quadrant for Project and Portfolio Management for its ability to execute and completeness of vision.
In June 2021, monday.com went public on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "MNDY". It raised $574 million in its IPO, giving it a valuation of nearly $7.6 billion. In Q4 2021, monday.com reported revenue of $95.5 million, up 91% year-over-year. For fiscal year 2021, revenue was $308 million, an increase of 91% from the prior year.
monday.com Major Milestones
- 2012: Founded in Tel Aviv by Roy Mann and Eran Zinman
- 2014: Releases first version of monday.com product
- 2017: Reaches 35,000 customers in over 140 countries
- 2019: Raises $150 million Series D at $1.9 billion valuation
- 2020: Surpasses 100,000 paying customers
- 2021: Goes public on NASDAQ, raising $574 million in its IPO
- 2022: Reaches over 152,000 customers and 1,000 employees globally
Want to learn more about monday.com? Check out their site for additional information.
From $8/user/month (billed annually)
14-day free trial + free plan available
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