Working together as a team should be like a well-oiled machine. You bounce ideas off of each other, hand off tasks, and communicate seamlessly. But the reality can sometimes be far from that.
Getting your team on the same page can be a hassle. There are too many emails to go through, no one is sure what they’re supposed to be working on, and you’re still waiting on Karen from management to get back to you about that decision.
Enter in team management tools—apps and websites designed to help you streamline the process, and communicate well. But some of these are more hassle than help, with clunky methods, poor organization, and too many notifications. You can end up in a worse place than before! So today, we’ll take a look at two popular team productivity tools—Monday.com vs. Asana—to see which one is right for you!
Meet the Sites: Monday.com vs. Asana
Monday.com
Nope, this isn’t the start of your work-week—but it is the start of your work’s productive streak. Started in 2012, this site’s goal is to help business bring “better collaboration, organization, and efficiency in all their work.” It’s used by 115,000 different organizations, from software developers to construction companies, and offer customizable templates for any of your needs.
Monday.com is basically a special Google/Excel sheet. You can adjust the columns with different names, labels and colors, and have special tasks on each row. A row can include a space for the duration of a project, its status, due date, links, or even sum and stat columns for keeping track of numbers.
You can comment or tag your coworkers in almost any area, so that important notes are right next to the work that needs to be done.
Asana
Asana is a company that is based off the Buddhist principle of the same name—bringing ease, focus, and flow. Their goal is to allow teams to work in a way that allows “anyone to see who is doing what, where work stands, and how it all maps back to your goals.” Used by companies like NASA and Spotify, it’s no small contender for one of the most popular team platforms.
Like Moday.com, the majority of Asana’s lists are set up like Google/Excel sheets, with customizable rows and columns that can show you project statuses, contact info, links, or due dates. However, Asana also offers board, timeline, and calendar views, to better accommodate your team’s needs.
It is a team site—so you can assign any team member to a project, or tag them in relevant conversations or tasks.
Ease of Use: Monday.com vs. Asana
Monday.com wants to make using their program simply. As soon as you start, they walk you through an onboarding process, asking about your company, role, current project, and more, so that it can automatically suggest helpful templates.
They also offer a quick video and tutorial—but the site is simple to use. Use one of their templates, or create your own board from scratch. (Though if you want to get the most out of Monday.com, scroll through all their templates for ideas of how to use the special columns!)
Each team member can adjust the columns as they complete tasks, or chat on the specific row if they have questions or need clarification. You can also glance over the activity log to easily see how an item has changed.
Monday.com also offers automations to streamline your process even further. These “if this, then that” commands allow you to move items, assign projects, or even send emails about the projects.
Asana boasts many of the same features. They offer a multitude of templates, from marketing timelines to class schedules, that allow you to jump-start your work. (Though you can always make your own as well!) Creating a new board is as simple as clicking the + key. Moving or rescheduling items is easy as well—all you have to do is drag and drop
Asana also features automations, which allow you to assign due dates to tasks as they come into your email, move tasks to different sections once their status changes, assign tasks to people when they’re ready for the next step, or even change the priority of tasks. There are some built-in commands for your convenience, but you can create ones for yourself as well.
A special feature that Asana boasts is the Portfolio option. This makes your life easier by allowing you to take everything in with one glance. You can see everyone’s workload for the week, the progress of different projects, and if anything is falling behind. This saves you from having to jump from tab to tab—and from having to assess the progress of each project yourself.
Conclusion: Ease of Use
While both Monday.com and Asana are basically twins in this category, Asana’s extra Portfolio option set it apart just enough to pull ahead. Both are designed to be simple and smooth for your team to use.
Monday.com: 4.6/5
Asana: 4.8/5
Device Accessibility: Monday.com vs. Asana
Both are available on the web, as well as have apps for both iOS and Android. However, Monday.com syncs a little better on your device than Asana does—and looks much nicer on your device as well.
Monday.com: 4.8/5
Asana: 4.5/5
Customization: Monday.com vs. Asana
Monday.com offers many ways for you to customize your columns. You’re not restricted just to status columns (not started/in progress/completed), you can be as unique as geographic location columns, so you know write where that house listing is located. There are features like a vote column to allow your team to vote on whether or not they want an ugly-sweater Christmas party, or a call button to allow you to connect with clients automatically.
Asana also offers this level of customization with their columns. You can even create completely customized fields, and change the priority level to what is important to you. Integrate links, contact info, or even create feedback forms within Asana itself.
Asana’s different view options allow you other customizations as well. In Board view, you can include photos, videos, or other files. You can customize boards for different tasks, include related tasks all together. You can also customize your timeline to match your needs, dragging and dropping to change the date or length of a task.
Conclusion: Customization
Once again, Monday.com and Asana are neck-and-neck. Asana has a slight edge with the customization of Boards and including images—but Monday.com offers a fun variety of special buttons that are easy to use.
Monday.com: 4.8/5
Asana: 4.8/5
Price: Monday.com vs. Asana
Here, our two sites lose their even pace. Monday.com offers a 14-day free trial, and their pricing system is based off a pay-per-member (The lowest number being 3). The Basic plan costs $24/month for three users. This allows you to create unlimited boards and templates, but you don’t have access to any automations, integrations, or formula columns. Monday.com’s Standard Plan costs $29/month, and allows you to use automations and integrations—but you have a limit of 250 actions of both each month. The Pro Plan costs $49/month, and allows you to make private boards, use formula columns, and use up to 25,000 automations and integrations a month.
Asana, on the other hands, offers a 30-day free trial. The also offer a Basic plan for free—though you can’t use the timeline feature, or create in-house forms. Asana’s Premium feature costs $10.99/month/user, which allows you access to timeline and in-house forms, as well as a special dashboard. Asana’s Business plan costs $24.99/user/month, and gives you access to the portfolio feature, as well as allowing you to see the workload of each of your members.
Conclusion: Price
There’s no comparison here—Asana is far cheaper, and even offers a free plan. Asana’s plan allows you more features, even though they’re cheaper than Monday.com’s, so you can use automations and integrations right away. Asana is the clear winner here.
Monday.com: 3.5/5
Asana: 4.8/5
Monday.com vs. Asana: Which is Better?
Monday.com and Asana are similar in many ways. They have the same goal, they’re set up the same way, and they offer many of the same features. But for most users, Asana is the better choice. Asana offers a free plan that has most of the tools that your everyday team will need—and their paid plans cost less than Monday.com’s. And those paid plans even offer more tools than Monday.com, from Asana’s portfolio to their Board view. If you want a program that makes it easy to create boards, customize them to your needs, and integrate them into your workplace, then Asana is right for you. Still considering Monday.com? You can learn more in our full review of Monday.com here.
Final Scores
Ease of Use: Monday.com: 4.6/5, Asana: 4.8/5
Device Accessibility: Monday.com: 4.8/5, Asana: 4.5/5
Customization: Monday.com: 4.8/5, Asana: 4.8/5
Pricing: Monday.com: 3.5/5, Asana: 4.8/5
