Asana vs Monday.com: which choice should you make?

Monday versus Asana

As a company, there are several requirements that you must comply with. On one hand, you need to satisfy your customers and work in perfect cooperation with your colleagues. On the other hand, you must constantly keep an eye on competition and offer the best products or services to your clients.

Stated like this, the process seems very easy to implement and execute. However, in reality, this is not entirely accurate. Indeed, behind the scenes, every company must organize itself as best as possible to achieve its goals and be efficient.

To achieve this, it is necessary to have a detailed plan and motivated collaborators to follow a complete process. But, endless weekly schedules have shown their limits in firms after a certain period.

This is what prompted developers to create practical solutions such as Asana or Monday.com. With their features, these two software aim to improve organizations within companies. But, which of them is the most interesting ?

Discover here the result of the comparison Asana versus Monday.

Monday.com : what is it ?

Monday.com was created in 2010 as an internal tool for the web developer Wix. In 2012, the solution left Wix to become a separate company called daPulse. The tool quickly became a success, receiving impressive funding during its early years.

In 2017, the tool's name was finally changed to Monday.com. The tool has quite impressive clients such as Uber, Adobe, Universal, and Costco. By 2019, the tool has more than 80,000 organizations as clients.

Monday.com is a cloud-based application development program providing enterprise solutions to professionals around the world. Furthermore, the platform, thanks to its project management functionality, allows users to integrate this aspect into their businesses.

In a word, Monday is a space where teams can collectively track tasks and collaborate at every stage of the project. Additionally, they can visualize progress through statistics, planning options, performance options, and store everything on a single platform.

The program also offers integrations that make applications like Monday a must-have for teams collaborating in a dynamic environment.

Asana : what is it ?

Asana is also a cloud-based project management software that meets the needs of small to medium-sized businesses. The software provides a unique solution for task management, collaboration, portfolio management, and workflow management.

Asana was founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and former Google and Facebook engineer Justin Rosenstein in 2008. The duo left Facebook to launch the project management tool for free in beta in November 2011. The tool quickly became a massive success.

During its early years in the market, Asana received funding from impressive investors such as Sean Parker, Mark Zuckerberg, and Tony Hsieh. By 2020, Asana has over 1.3 million users. Asana has clients such as IBM, AB-InBev, eBay, and Overstock.

The upward trajectory has not stopped for the project management solution. Indeed, they filed for a direct listing with plans for an initial public offering in August 2020.

With this platform, you can see the progress of your work in the form of :

• Calendars ;

• Lists ;

• Gantt Charts ;

• Kanban Boards. 

Additionally, you can collaborate with your team using the communication tools that integrate with Asana. Due to its ease of use, Asana is widely used as a project management tool worldwide.   

Asana VS Monday.com : focus on features

In the interest of stating which of the two software is more efficient, it's important to focus on their features.

To give you a better idea of what each tool has to offer, a comparison between the two tools is also necessary.

Asana VS Monday.com : overview of their strengths

In order to determine which of the two is more interesting than the other, it is essential to make a more objective comparison of the two programs. To do this, it is appropriate to base it on their main deciding factors.

Workflow Management

You can manage the workflow in Asana through different categories of "views". The views include lists, boards, and timelines. All these views show the workflow differently.

You can drag and drop tasks into the view you have selected to see the workflow.

Similarly, you can view your project in the form of a Kanban board if you wish.

Monday.com also has an almost similar way to address the workflow. However, it is easier to switch between different units of visual project workflow compared to Asana. By using Monday.com, you can manage the workflow via Kanban boards, charts, and timelines.

With Monday.com, you can see the list of each step of the project in the form of pulses. Moreover, the user interface allows you to switch between pulses without too much hassle. The default view is in list form, but you have the option to choose a Kanban board or a chart for the visual view of your workflow.

Fortunately, the comparison Asana VS Monday.com is not limited to this feature.

Task Management

This feature is used to create, assign, and monitor tasks assigned to employees. It is at the core of project management tools. This allows project managers to keep an eye on every moving part of ongoing projects.

Software administrators have the option to assign tasks to employees, add deadlines, and post comments for those involved in the task.

Regarding task management on Asana, it primarily focuses on task creation. This includes deadlines and tracking tasks via lists, boards, and timeline views.

You can see upcoming tasks in the "My Tasks" tab on the homepage. You can also click on any task to view all task details and attach documents for collaboration.

With regard to Monday.com, there are no major differences. Only, the tasks have a different name, namely: pulses. You can create pulses, assign them to team members, and create dependencies in tasks.

You can also track the progress of the task by looking at the task overview in your task manager. Task statuses keep the team informed of the task completion rate.

The software also allows you to manage daily task lists and weekly team tasks. The team leader can design tasks and assign them to team members.

Action boards provide an overview of the status of each task, making it easier to manage tasks for team members.

Portfolio Management

Asana VS Monday is somewhat tight, but unlike many other project management tools, they offer portfolio management. Portfolio management is the overall management of all ongoing projects in one space. Here’s how both tools execute it :

You can view the portfolio of ongoing projects by zooming out on daily tasks in Asana. The portfolio shows the status of each project, ensuring that you do not miss any project due to juggling multiple projects simultaneously.

Monday, unlike Asana, does not have a true portfolio management section. However, Monday has a feature called “Groups” that you can use to group any sub-benchmark of your project. Using the grouping tool, you can create a portfolio tab by integrating all your ongoing projects all in one place.

Unlike Asana, the groups do not show you the complete status of projects. However, you can still keep an eye on projects by creating a group (at least, you can avoid forgetting a project entirely).

Security Aspect

Digital security is a concern for all enterprise solution providers. Asana and Monday thus secure their clients through well-known security compliance.

Asana complies with SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001:2013 standards. The company does not allow businesses to run the software on their servers. They have kept it cloud-based and implemented firewalls to prevent any security breaches for their clients.

As for Monday.com, it keeps client data readily available by working with Amazon Web Service (AWS). In addition, Monday also utilizes security practices from Google Cloud Platform. Furthermore, the company has complied with ISO 27001, ISO 27018 standards.

Indeed, while the goal is to find the winner of the software Asana versus Monday, it must be believed that they are both on point in terms of security. There is no comparison to be made on this aspect.

The price of both solutions  

Asana has a three-tier pricing strategy. The basic plan is free and gives three views including :

• Workflows ;

• Basic flows ;

• Reports.

The basic free version can include up to 15 team members. The Premium account costs $10.99 per month, granting access to custom fields, unlimited dashboards, and unlimited reports on an unlimited number of projects, among other things.

The business plan is the most expensive and costs $24.99 per month per user. Features include advanced reporting options and four views compared to three in the cheaper options.

Monday.com is a bit lower on the pricing scale compared to Asana. The company offers five pricing levels to its customers. The individual plan is free and can include up to 2 members with unlimited boards and more than 200 templates.

The pricing for the basic plan is $8 per person per month. Then, there is a standard account that costs $10 per month per person. The Pro account costs $16 per month, and the prices for enterprise solutions are custom based on the package.

Overall, Monday has a better price than Asana. But if you prefer a free version, Asana definitely takes the cake.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Asana tool

You have seen roughly what each tool offers in the context of the Asana versus Monday comparison. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of the Asana tool.

Advantages

Regarding the benefits of using it, Asana has quite a few, namely :  

• A user-friendly interface: Asana has an easy-to-use and intuitive interface that even beginners will have no trouble using ;

• A customizable tool: Asana allows you to customize almost all the functions you execute ;

• A significant integration capability: The more than 150 integrations make Asana a favorite for enterprises ;

• Multiple views: Asana users can manage views based on their individual preferences. For example, they can see lists, timelines, boards, and timelines ;

• Team collaboration: Teams can communicate in a single space.

Disadvantages

It is clear that despite all its advantages, the tool still has some disadvantages. These include :

• The lack of a single view for all tasks : the software does not allow you to manage all tasks on a single screen.

• Limitations on the recipient for a single task : you cannot assign a task to multiple people.

• The software is expensive: The pricing plans can be costly for small businesses.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Monday.com tool ?

In the interest of deciding the best between Asana versus Monday.com, the advantages and disadvantages of the latter are important to highlight.

Asana offers over 150 integrations with enterprise software. You can use Slack, Instagantt, Dropbox, and Google Drive to better organize your work. You can also benefit from powerful integration with Everhour for time tracking and budgeting.

Regarding integrations, Monday is behind Asana with nearly 50 workspace solution providers. You can use Zoom, Google Drive, Excel, etc. while using Monday. The best way to track time is to connect Monday.com and Everhour.

Advantages

Several advantages are worth mentioning for this tool including :

• A colorful user interface: Monday has a dynamic and colorful screen ;

• The ability for interdepartmental collaboration: Monday allows interdepartmental teams to easily track tasks and projects ;

• The ability to have multiple assignees: unlike Asana, Monday.com allows you to assign a single task to multiple people ;

• The ability to make multiple integrations: over 50 integrations allow for numerous functions on the tool beyond the built-in features ;

• An intuitive interface. Just like Asana, Monday also has an intuitive interface that facilitates its use even for beginners.

Monday.com allows for customization and works with APIs which means Monday.com can do more things.

Disadvantages

It is rare to find software that is unanimously perfect in every way. Monday.com is no exception to this legend.  Here are its disadvantages :

• The necessity of training : you cannot directly start working on Monday.com. It requires some training if you work in a company due to the vast possibility of options available. Guidance is strongly recommended.

• The limitation in the free plan: The maximum number of team members for Monday.com's free plan is two, which is basically useless if you are managing teams.

Ultimately, it all comes down to your personal preferences and organizational needs.