⚡ Quick Verdict

🟣 Choose ClickUp If…

You want maximum features at the lowest possible price. ClickUp's $7/user/month Unlimited plan includes time tracking, Gantt charts, goals, portfolios, resource management, unlimited automations, and unlimited integrations — features that Monday.com gates behind its $19 Pro or Enterprise tiers. ClickUp's free plan supports unlimited members (vs Monday.com's 2-seat cap). Best for budget-conscious teams, automation-heavy workflows, and organizations that want an all-in-one workspace combining project management, docs, whiteboards, and chat.

🔵 Choose Monday.com If…

You need a polished visual platform with a broader product ecosystem. Monday.com's strength is its modular suite — CRM, dev tools, and service management alongside work management — plus the most intuitive onboarding experience in the category. Its Microsoft Copilot integration is unique, unlimited free viewers are invaluable for client-facing teams, and 200+ templates make setup instant. Best for visual-first teams, organizations in the Microsoft ecosystem, and companies that need CRM + PM on one platform.

💡 The real question: Do you need maximum features per dollar with an all-in-one workspace (ClickUp), or a polished modular platform with a broader product ecosystem and easier onboarding (Monday.com)? ClickUp wins on value; Monday.com wins on ecosystem breadth and user experience.

📋 Table of Contents

  1. Overview: All-in-One Workspace vs Modular Platform
  2. What Is ClickUp?
  3. What Is Monday.com?
  4. Pricing & Plans Compared
  5. Feature-by-Feature Comparison
  6. Automations & Workflows
  7. AI Features
  8. Project Views & Visualization
  9. Time Tracking & Resource Management
  10. Integrations & Ecosystem
  11. Collaboration & Communication
  12. Reporting & Dashboards
  13. Security & Admin Controls
  14. ClickUp: Pros & Cons
  15. Monday.com: Pros & Cons
  16. Total Cost of Ownership (Real Numbers)
  17. Best Use Cases for Each
  18. Alternatives Worth Considering
  19. FAQ

Overview: All-in-One Workspace vs Modular Platform

The ClickUp vs Monday.com comparison represents two fundamentally different strategies for building a project management tool — and understanding that strategic difference is key to making the right choice for your team.

ClickUp is the "everything app" — an all-in-one productivity platform that combines project management, documents, whiteboards, chat, goals, time tracking, and AI into a single workspace. Founded in 2017 by Zeb Evans in San Diego, ClickUp has grown rapidly to over 800,000 teams worldwide. Its DNA is feature density: pack as many capabilities as possible into the lowest price tiers and replace the need for multiple separate tools. ClickUp raised $400M in a Series C at a $4 billion valuation and has been laser-focused on being the one tool that replaces Asana, Trello, Notion, Slack, and more. The result is a platform that's arguably the most feature-rich project management tool at any given price point — but one that can feel overwhelming for teams that just want simple task boards.

Monday.com is a Work Operating System (Work OS) — a modular platform of specialized products built on a shared visual foundation. Founded in 2012 by Roy Mann and Eran Zinman in Tel Aviv, Monday.com went public on NASDAQ in 2021 (ticker: MNDY) and serves over 250,000 customers worldwide. Its DNA is modular ecosystems: instead of cramming everything into one tool, Monday.com built separate products for work management, CRM (monday sales CRM), software development (monday dev), and service management (monday service) — each sharing the same visual, intuitive interface. Monday.com was named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for both Collaborative Work Management and Adaptive Project Management.

Here's what most comparisons miss: the core project management features are comparable. Task lists, Kanban boards, timelines, assignments, due dates — both handle these competently. The differences that drive purchasing decisions are pricing structure (ClickUp is 22% cheaper per user), feature gating (ClickUp includes more at lower tiers), automation limits (ClickUp unlimited vs Monday.com capped), product ecosystem breadth (Monday.com has CRM and dev tools), and user experience philosophy (ClickUp is dense, Monday.com is polished).

ClickUp gives you everything for less money — but asks you to navigate that density. Monday.com gives you a cleaner experience with specialized products — but charges more and gates critical features behind higher tiers. Neither approach is wrong; they serve different organizational priorities.

What Is ClickUp?

ClickUp positions itself as "The Everything App for Work" — a unified platform designed to replace the patchwork of project management, documentation, communication, and goal-tracking tools that most teams cobble together. Think of it as an attempt to combine Asana + Notion + Slack + Google Docs into one platform.

The ClickUp Platform

ClickUp's workspace is built around a hierarchy: Workspace → Spaces → Folders → Lists → Tasks → Subtasks. This deep nesting structure allows complex organizations to mirror their real-world structure in the tool. Here's what's included:

  • Project & task management — The core product. Tasks with assignees, due dates, priorities, custom fields, dependencies, subtasks, checklists, and multiple views. ClickUp's task model is one of the most flexible available — tasks can live in multiple lists simultaneously, have custom statuses per space, and include nested subtask hierarchies.
  • ClickUp Docs — A full document editor built into the workspace. Create wikis, knowledge bases, meeting notes, and SOPs that connect directly to tasks and projects. Includes real-time collaboration, rich formatting, nested pages, and the ability to embed tasks, views, and data directly inside documents.
  • ClickUp Whiteboards — Visual collaboration canvases for brainstorming, planning, and mapping workflows. Convert whiteboard objects directly into tasks — bridging the gap between ideation and execution.
  • ClickUp Chat — Built-in messaging for team communication. Threaded conversations, @mentions, file sharing, and the ability to turn chat messages into tasks. Designed to reduce the need for a separate Slack or Teams subscription.
  • Goals & OKRs — Set measurable goals with numerical, monetary, true/false, or task-based targets. Roll up task completion to goal progress automatically. Connect individual work to team and company-level objectives.
  • Time tracking — Native time tracking built into every task. Start/stop timers, add manual entries, generate timesheet reports, and track billable hours. No third-party integration needed.
  • ClickUp Brain & Everything AI — ClickUp's AI layer. Brain provides basic AI assistance, while the Everything AI add-on ($9-$28/user/month) unlocks multi-model AI chat (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude), AI writing, AI notetaker, AI-powered custom fields, AI automations, and image generation.
  • Sprints — Built-in sprint management with sprint points, velocity tracking, burndown charts, and retrospective reports. Available from the Free plan (basic) with full reporting on Business ($12/user).

Key Strengths

  • Feature density at low prices — ClickUp's defining advantage. The $7/user Unlimited plan includes features that competitors price at $19-$25/user or gate behind Enterprise: time tracking, Gantt charts, goals, portfolios, resource management, unlimited automations, unlimited integrations, custom fields, forms, and guests. No other PM tool matches this feature-to-price ratio.
  • Unlimited automations on all paid plans — No monthly action caps. Create as many automated workflows as you want without worrying about overages. This is a direct competitive advantage over Monday.com's capped approach.
  • All-in-one workspace — Docs, whiteboards, chat, goals, time tracking, and project management in one tool. For teams that hate switching between apps, ClickUp consolidates more functionality than any competitor.
  • Most generous free plan — Unlimited members, unlimited tasks, Kanban/Calendar/Sprint views, and 24/7 support for $0. Monday.com caps its free plan at 2 seats.
  • Deep customization — Custom statuses, custom fields, custom views, task relationships, multiple assignees, task dependencies, automations, and workspace-level theming. ClickUp can adapt to virtually any workflow.

Who Uses ClickUp?

  • Budget-conscious teams — Startups, agencies, and SMBs that need enterprise-level features without enterprise pricing. Getting time tracking, goals, and portfolios at $7/user is unmatched.
  • Engineering and product teams — Built-in sprints, Git integrations, and the ability to customize workflows per space make ClickUp popular with technical teams.
  • Agencies and service businesses — Time tracking, client guest access, multiple workspaces, and docs for client-facing deliverables.
  • Power users and process architects — Teams that want maximum control over their workflow configuration. ClickUp rewards investment in setup with a highly tailored experience.
  • Remote and hybrid teams — Built-in docs, chat, whiteboards, and video clips reduce the need for separate communication tools.

What Is Monday.com?

Monday.com positions itself as a "Work OS" — a platform for building and running any workflow, process, or project your team needs. Where ClickUp tries to be one tool that does everything, Monday.com builds specialized products that share a common visual foundation. Think of it as a platform company rather than a product company.

The Monday.com Product Suite

Monday.com has expanded far beyond basic project management into a full ecosystem of business tools:

  • monday work management — The core product. Visual project and task management with boards, timelines, Gantt charts, calendars, dashboards, automations, integrations, and AI features. Colorful, highly customizable boards with 30+ column types and 200+ templates.
  • monday sales CRM — A full CRM built on the Monday.com platform. Contact management, deal tracking, pipeline visualization, email integration, activity tracking, and sales automations. This is a genuine CRM, not a hack built on project boards — it's purpose-built with sales-specific features.
  • monday dev — Software development tools including sprint planning, bug tracking, roadmaps, CI/CD integrations, and developer-focused views. Built for engineering teams that want to use the same platform as marketing, sales, and operations.
  • monday service — IT and service management for handling tickets, requests, and internal support workflows. Includes a service catalog, SLA tracking, and knowledge base capabilities.
  • One AI — Monday.com's unified AI layer across all products. Includes AI Sidekick (a context-aware assistant), AI credits for text generation and task automation, AI-powered risk identification, project request categorization, and instant project plan generation. Integrates with Microsoft Copilot for cross-platform AI workflows.

Key Strengths

  • Broadest product ecosystem — CRM, dev tools, service management, and work management on one platform. No other PM tool offers this breadth. Companies can standardize on Monday.com across departments without bolting on third-party tools for CRM or dev management.
  • Visual-first design — Monday.com's interface is colorful, intuitive, and immediately understandable. Color-coded statuses, drag-and-drop everything, and 200+ templates make it the easiest PM tool to adopt for non-technical teams.
  • Highest user adoption — Awarded "Highest User Adoption for Enterprises" by G2. The low learning curve gets teams productive faster, which translates to real ROI. A tool your team actually uses is worth more than a feature-rich tool they abandon.
  • Microsoft Copilot integration — The only major PM tool with native Copilot support. For organizations standardized on Microsoft 365, this bridges AI assistance across Monday.com and the Microsoft ecosystem.
  • Unlimited free viewers — All paid plans include unlimited read-only viewers. Clients, executives, and stakeholders can see project progress without adding to your per-seat cost. This is a significant advantage for agencies and consulting firms.
  • Enterprise-grade at scale — Named a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader, used by over 250,000 customers. Monday.com has proven it can handle enterprise-scale deployments with appropriate security and governance.

Who Uses Monday.com?

  • Marketing and creative teams — Campaign management, content calendars, asset tracking, and creative workflows. The visual interface resonates with creative professionals who think in colors and boards.
  • Sales teams — monday sales CRM gives sales teams pipeline management, deal tracking, and reporting without leaving the Monday.com ecosystem. Sales and delivery teams can work on one platform.
  • Cross-functional organizations — Companies that want CRM, project management, and dev tools on one platform to reduce tool sprawl and simplify cross-department workflows.
  • Microsoft-centric enterprises — Organizations standardized on Microsoft 365 that want deep Teams integration and Copilot AI assistance.
  • Non-technical teams — HR, operations, finance, and admin teams that need project tracking without a steep learning curve or extensive setup.

ClickUp vs Monday.com: Pricing & Plans Compared

Pricing is where the ClickUp vs Monday.com comparison gets concrete — and where ClickUp's value proposition becomes unmistakable. Both tools use per-user pricing, but the features you get at each price point differ dramatically. What Monday.com charges $19/seat for, ClickUp often includes at $7/user.

ClickUp Pricing

Plan Monthly Price Key Features & Limits Best For
Free $0 Unlimited members, unlimited tasks, 60MB storage, 3 boards, 1 form, Kanban/Calendar/Sprint views, 24/7 support Individuals, small teams exploring PM tools
Unlimited $7/user/mo Unlimited storage, folders, spaces, integrations, Gantt charts, custom fields, forms, guests, email, native time tracking, goals & portfolios, resource management, unlimited automations, AI compatible Small-to-mid teams needing full PM capabilities
Business $12/user/mo Google SSO, unlimited mind maps/activity/timeline/dashboards/whiteboards, sprint points & reporting, automation integrations, workload management, SMS 2FA Mid-size teams needing advanced reporting and security
Enterprise Contact sales White labeling, conditional logic in forms, custom roles, enterprise API, HIPAA compliance, SSO/SAML, SCIM, US/EU/APAC data residency, managed services Large organizations with compliance needs
AI Add-on $9-$28/user/mo Brain AI (basic) + Everything AI: AI chat (ChatGPT/Gemini/Claude), AI writing, AI notetaker, AI fields, AI automations, image generation Teams wanting advanced AI assistance

Important ClickUp pricing notes:

  • Prices shown are annual billing. Monthly billing is available at a premium.
  • The Unlimited plan at $7/user/month is ClickUp's sweet spot — it includes features that competitors charge 2-3x more for (time tracking, goals, portfolios, resource management, unlimited automations).
  • AI is a separate add-on, not bundled into the base price. This means you can skip AI costs entirely if your team doesn't need it — or pay $9-$28/user for multi-model AI with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude access.
  • Guest access is included from the Unlimited plan — invite external collaborators without adding paid seats.

Monday.com Pricing

Plan Monthly Price Key Features & Limits Best For
Free $0 Up to 2 seats, 3 boards, 200+ templates, 8 column types, iOS/Android, no automations, no integrations Solo users, freelancers
Basic $9/seat/mo AI credits, unlimited viewers, unlimited items, 5GB storage, priority support, 1-board dashboards Small teams getting started
Standard $12/seat/mo Timeline/Gantt views, calendar, guest access, 250 automation actions/mo, 250 integration actions/mo, AI Sidekick (lite), 5-board dashboards Growing teams needing automations
Pro $19/seat/mo Private boards, chart view, time tracking, formula column, 25K automation/integration actions/mo, AI Sidekick (lite), 20-board dashboards Established teams at scale
Enterprise Contact sales One AI bundle, AI Sidekick (plus), portfolio management, resource management, 250K automation/integration actions/mo, multi-level permissions, enterprise security, 50-board dashboards Large organizations

Important Monday.com pricing notes:

  • Minimum 3 seats on paid plans — you can't buy 1 seat. The minimum paid cost is $27/month (Basic, 3 seats).
  • Annual billing saves 18% (prices shown are annual billing).
  • AI credits are included from the Basic plan. AI Sidekick (lite) is on Standard and Pro. The full One AI with Sidekick (plus) is Enterprise only.
  • Automation and integration actions share the same monthly pool — using Slack + email integrations eats into the same limit as automations.
  • Free viewers (read-only access) are unlimited on all paid plans — a major advantage for teams with stakeholders.

Price Comparison at Each Level

Team Size ClickUp Unlimited ($7) Monday.com Basic ($9) ClickUp Business ($12) Monday.com Standard ($12) Monday.com Pro ($19)
5 users $35/mo $45/mo $60/mo $60/mo $95/mo
10 users $70/mo $90/mo $120/mo $120/mo $190/mo
15 users $105/mo $135/mo $180/mo $180/mo $285/mo
25 users $175/mo $225/mo $300/mo $300/mo $475/mo
50 users $350/mo $450/mo $600/mo $600/mo $950/mo
100 users $700/mo $900/mo $1,200/mo $1,200/mo $1,900/mo

Key pricing takeaway: ClickUp Unlimited at $7/user includes more features than Monday.com Pro at $19/seat. That's not a typo. Time tracking, goals, portfolios, resource management, Gantt charts, unlimited automations, and unlimited integrations — all at $7/user. Monday.com requires you to pay $19/seat just to get time tracking and 25K automations/month, and gates portfolios and resource management behind Enterprise pricing entirely. For a 15-person team, ClickUp Unlimited costs $105/month while Monday.com Pro costs $285/month — a $2,160/year difference for comparable (and in many cases superior) features.

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Here's a comprehensive side-by-side look at every major feature across both platforms. We've noted which plan each feature requires — because a feature locked behind Enterprise pricing is irrelevant to most teams' purchasing decisions.

Feature ClickUp Monday.com Edge
Free plan members Unlimited members 2 seats max ClickUp
Entry paid price $7/user (Unlimited) $9/seat (Basic) ClickUp
Task management Unlimited tasks on all plans Unlimited items on Basic+ Tie
Gantt charts Unlimited ($7/user) Standard ($12/seat) ClickUp
Time tracking Native ($7/user) Pro ($19/seat) ClickUp
Goals & OKRs Unlimited ($7/user) Enterprise only ClickUp
Portfolios Unlimited ($7/user) Enterprise only ClickUp
Resource management Unlimited ($7/user) Enterprise only ClickUp
Automations Unlimited on all paid plans 250/mo (Standard), 25K/mo (Pro), 250K/mo (Enterprise) ClickUp
Integrations Unlimited on Unlimited+ 250 actions/mo (Standard), 25K/mo (Pro) ClickUp
Custom fields Unlimited ($7/user) 30+ column types on all plans Tie
Forms 1 on Free, unlimited on Unlimited+ Available on paid plans Tie
Storage 60MB (Free), unlimited (Unlimited+) None listed (Free), 5GB (Basic), more on higher ClickUp
Built-in docs ClickUp Docs (all plans) monday Docs (all paid plans) Tie
Whiteboards Business ($12/user) — unlimited Business+ (varies) Tie
Built-in chat ClickUp Chat (all plans) Not available (uses integrations) ClickUp
Sprint management Built-in sprints with velocity tracking Via monday dev (separate product) ClickUp
CRM capabilities Not available (basic contacts via custom fields) monday sales CRM (dedicated product) Monday
Dev tools Built-in sprints, Git integrations monday dev (dedicated product) Monday
Service management Not available monday service (dedicated product) Monday
AI features Brain (basic) + Everything AI add-on ($9-$28/user) AI credits (Basic+), AI Sidekick lite (Standard+), One AI (Enterprise) Monday (bundled)
Free viewers Guest access (Unlimited+) Unlimited free viewers (all paid plans) Monday
Templates 1,000+ templates 200+ templates ClickUp
SSO / SAML Google SSO (Business), full SSO (Enterprise) Enterprise only ClickUp (Google SSO earlier)
HIPAA compliance Enterprise Enterprise Tie
Data residency US/EU/APAC (Enterprise) Enterprise Tie
Mobile apps iOS & Android (all plans) iOS & Android (all plans) Tie
Microsoft Copilot Not available Native integration Monday

Summary: ClickUp wins on 12 out of 28 features, Monday.com wins on 5, and 11 are ties. But the features ClickUp wins on are the most impactful for daily work: time tracking, goals, portfolios, resource management, automations, and integrations — all at a lower price. Monday.com's wins center on ecosystem breadth (CRM, dev, service), free viewers, and bundled AI. For teams that primarily need project management, ClickUp delivers dramatically more value. For organizations that need a full business platform spanning sales, support, and development, Monday.com's ecosystem is the differentiator.

Automations & Workflows

Automation capability is the single most consequential practical difference between ClickUp and Monday.com. How each platform handles automations fundamentally shapes how teams can scale their workflows — and this is where ClickUp holds a massive structural advantage.

ClickUp Automations

ClickUp offers unlimited automations on all paid plans starting from the $7/user Unlimited tier. The automation builder supports if/then triggers with conditions, actions, and multi-step workflows. Key capabilities include:

  • Trigger types: Status changes, assignee changes, due date arrival, task creation, tag changes, priority changes, custom field changes, time tracking events, and more.
  • Action types: Change status, assign users, set dates, move tasks, create tasks, send emails, post comments, apply templates, update custom fields, and trigger webhooks.
  • Multi-step automations: Chain multiple actions from a single trigger. "When status changes to Review → assign to QA lead → set due date to 3 days from now → post comment → move to QA list."
  • Automation integrations (Business+): Connect automations to external tools. Trigger actions in Slack, email, or other services as part of your workflow chains.
  • No monthly caps: Run 10 automations or 10,000 — the price is the same. This is ClickUp's defining automation advantage.

The unlimited approach means teams can automate aggressively without ever thinking about usage. Set up automations for every status change, every handoff, every notification — and never worry about a "you've exceeded your monthly limit" email.

Monday.com Automations

Monday.com offers a visual automation builder where you create "recipes" — intuitive if/then triggers with pre-built templates. The builder is arguably more polished and user-friendly than ClickUp's, with a cleaner visual interface and more template recipes out of the box. However, the critical limitation is the action cap:

  • Free & Basic: No automations available
  • Standard ($12/seat): 250 automation actions/month
  • Pro ($19/seat): 25,000 automation actions/month
  • Enterprise: 250,000 automation actions/month

The 250-action problem is real. Here's why: every time an automation triggers, it counts as one action. A board with 50 tasks that each change status 3 times generates 150 actions from a single automation rule. A team of 10 people running 5-6 automations across 3 boards can burn through 250 actions in the first week of the month — leaving three weeks with no automations running.

Making matters worse, integration actions share the same pool. If you have an automation that sends a Slack notification when a task is completed AND an integration that syncs items to Google Sheets, both count against your 250-action limit. Teams using automations AND integrations together hit the wall even faster.

Real-World Automation Example

Consider a standard project workflow with these automations:

  • When task is created → assign to project lead (1 action per task)
  • When status changes to "In Progress" → start timer (1 action per task)
  • When status changes to "Review" → notify QA team in Slack (1 action per task)
  • When status changes to "Done" → update Google Sheet + notify manager (2 actions per task)

That's 5 actions per task lifecycle. A team managing 50 tasks/month uses 250 actions — exactly Monday.com's Standard plan limit. Add a sixth automation and you're over budget. On ClickUp, these same automations cost $0 extra beyond your $7/user plan.

Verdict: Automations

ClickUp wins decisively. Unlimited automations at $7/user/month vs 250 actions/month at $12/seat is not a close comparison. Even Monday.com's Pro plan (25K actions at $19/seat) has a ceiling that large teams can hit. ClickUp's unlimited approach removes automation as a cost consideration entirely — teams can automate everything without usage anxiety. This is the single strongest argument for ClickUp over Monday.com, and for automation-heavy teams, it's often the deciding factor by itself.

AI Features

Both ClickUp and Monday.com are investing heavily in AI, but they've taken fundamentally different approaches: Monday.com bundles AI into the platform, while ClickUp sells AI as an optional add-on with access to multiple AI models.

ClickUp AI: Brain + Everything AI

ClickUp's AI strategy is a two-tier system:

  • Brain AI (basic, included) — Available on all plans. Provides basic AI assistance for writing, task creation, and summarization. This is ClickUp's baseline AI that comes with the platform.
  • Everything AI ($9-$28/user/month add-on) — The full AI suite that unlocks ClickUp's advanced capabilities:
    • Multi-model AI chat — Access ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude directly within ClickUp. Switch between models based on what you're working on.
    • AI writing assistant — Generate, edit, and improve content with AI-powered writing tools. Works within Docs, task descriptions, and comments.
    • AI notetaker — Automatically transcribe and summarize meetings, then create tasks from action items.
    • AI custom fields — Auto-populate custom fields using AI analysis. Categorize, tag, and enrich task data automatically.
    • AI automations — AI-powered automation triggers that can make intelligent decisions (e.g., "when a bug report is created, analyze severity and assign to the appropriate team").
    • Image generation — Create images directly within ClickUp for presentations, documentation, and creative work.

The add-on pricing means a 10-person team on ClickUp Unlimited + Everything AI pays $7 + $9-$28 per user = $16-$35/user/month for the full AI experience. At the low end ($16/user), this is competitive. At the high end ($35/user), it's expensive.

Monday.com AI: One AI

Monday.com has bundled AI into its platform pricing — you don't buy AI separately, it's included in progressively more capable tiers:

  • AI Credits (Basic, $9/seat) — AI-powered features like generating text, creating formulas, and categorizing items. Credits are consumed per use and provide basic AI assistance.
  • AI Sidekick Lite (Standard & Pro) — A context-aware AI assistant that understands your workspace. Can help with task creation, project planning, answering questions about your data, and generating status updates. "Lite" has limited capability compared to the full version.
  • AI Sidekick Plus + One AI Bundle (Enterprise) — The full-power AI assistant that can understand, connect, and autonomously run work across the entire Monday.com ecosystem. Can take actions (not just suggest them), identify project risks proactively, categorize incoming requests, and generate detailed project plans.
  • Microsoft Copilot integration — Unique to Monday.com. Bridge AI assistance across Monday.com and Microsoft tools. For organizations that live in Microsoft 365, this cross-platform AI is a genuine differentiator.

Verdict: AI Features

Different strengths, no clear winner. Monday.com wins on simplicity and bundling — AI is included in the platform price, no separate purchasing decision required. Basic AI credits from $9/seat means every paying user gets AI assistance from day one. Monday.com's Microsoft Copilot integration is unique and valuable for Microsoft-centric organizations.

ClickUp wins on depth and model flexibility — Everything AI gives you access to ChatGPT, Gemini, AND Claude within one tool, which is powerful for teams that want the best AI model for each task. AI automations and AI custom fields are advanced capabilities that Monday.com doesn't fully match outside Enterprise. But ClickUp's approach costs extra, which can add up quickly for large teams.

For most SMBs, Monday.com's bundled approach is more practical — you don't have to decide on an AI add-on or worry about per-user AI costs. For power users who want multi-model AI access and AI-powered automations, ClickUp's Everything AI is more capable (at a price).

Project Views & Visualization

How you see your work shapes how you manage it. Both platforms offer multiple ways to visualize projects, but ClickUp offers more view types at lower price points — a consistent theme in this comparison.

ClickUp Views

ClickUp offers one of the widest selections of project views in the PM space:

  • List View — Classic task list with subtasks, custom fields, sorting, grouping, and filtering. The workhorse view for detail-oriented teams.
  • Board (Kanban) View — Drag-and-drop cards grouped by status, assignee, priority, or any custom field. Available on all plans including Free.
  • Calendar View — Tasks displayed on a monthly/weekly calendar by due date. Available on all plans including Free.
  • Gantt View — Project scheduling with dependencies, milestones, and critical path visualization. Available from Unlimited ($7/user) — Monday.com charges $12/seat for the same view.
  • Timeline View — Simplified time-based view showing task durations and overlaps. Available from Business ($12/user).
  • Table View — Spreadsheet-style view for data-heavy work. Sort, filter, and batch-edit tasks in rows and columns.
  • Mind Map View — Visual brainstorming and idea mapping. Available on Business ($12/user) with unlimited mind maps.
  • Workload View — Team capacity visualization showing who's overloaded and who has bandwidth. Available from Business ($12/user).
  • Activity View — Real-time feed of all workspace activity. Track changes, comments, and updates across your workspace.
  • Whiteboard View — Visual collaboration canvas for planning, diagramming, and brainstorming. Convert objects directly into tasks.
  • Sprint View — Agile sprint board with velocity tracking and burndown charts. Available from Free (basic) with reporting on Business.

Monday.com Views

  • Table View — The default spreadsheet-like layout with color-coded statuses and 30+ column types. Monday.com's table view is more visually polished than ClickUp's with better color customization.
  • Kanban View — Drag-and-drop cards grouped by status or any column. Clean, visual, and intuitive.
  • Timeline View — Visual scheduling with drag-and-drop date ranges. Available on Standard ($12/seat).
  • Gantt View — Detailed project scheduling with dependencies and milestones. Available on Standard ($12/seat).
  • Calendar View — Monthly/weekly view of items by date. Available on Standard ($12/seat).
  • Chart View — Data visualization with bar, pie, and line charts. Available on Pro ($19/seat).
  • Map View — Geographic visualization for location-based data. Useful for field teams, real estate, and logistics.
  • Workload View — Team capacity and allocation visualization. Available on higher tiers.

Verdict: Project Views

ClickUp wins on quantity and accessibility. ClickUp offers 11+ views compared to Monday.com's 8, and makes more of them available at lower price tiers. Gantt charts at $7/user (ClickUp) vs $12/seat (Monday.com) is a significant difference for teams that rely on project scheduling. ClickUp's mind map, whiteboard, sprint, and activity views have no direct equivalents in Monday.com's core views.

Monday.com's views are more visually polished and the table view is arguably more intuitive with its color-coded column system. The map view is a unique Monday.com feature useful for location-based teams. But for most teams, ClickUp's broader view selection at lower prices is the better value proposition.

Time Tracking & Resource Management

Time tracking and resource management are critical for agencies, consulting firms, and any team that bills by the hour or needs to manage team capacity. This is one of the areas where ClickUp's feature-at-lower-tier advantage is most dramatic.

ClickUp Time Tracking

ClickUp includes native time tracking from the Unlimited plan ($7/user/month). Key capabilities:

  • Start/stop timers — One-click time tracking on any task. The timer persists across browser tabs and devices, so you can start tracking on desktop and stop on mobile.
  • Manual time entries — Add time retroactively for past work. Useful for teams that don't track in real-time.
  • Timesheet reports — Weekly timesheet views showing time logged per user, per project, per task. Export to CSV for payroll or client billing.
  • Billable time — Mark time entries as billable or non-billable. Essential for agencies and consulting firms that bill clients by the hour.
  • Time estimates — Set estimated time per task and compare against actual time logged. Track accuracy of estimates over time.
  • Rollup reporting — See total time spent at the folder, space, or workspace level. Understand where your team's time is going across projects.

Monday.com Time Tracking

Monday.com includes time tracking starting at the Pro plan ($19/seat/month) — nearly 3x the price of ClickUp's time tracking tier. Capabilities include:

  • Time tracking column — Add a time tracking column to any board. Start/stop timers directly on items.
  • Manual time entries — Add time retroactively with date and duration.
  • Time tracking widgets — Display time data in dashboards with visual widgets.
  • Third-party integrations — Connect to dedicated time tracking tools like Toggl, Clockify, or Harvest via the integration marketplace.

Monday.com's time tracking is functional but less comprehensive than ClickUp's — no built-in billable/non-billable distinction, no dedicated timesheet view, and limited rollup reporting. Most importantly, it requires the Pro plan at $19/seat, which means a 10-person team pays $190/month just to get time tracking capabilities that ClickUp includes at $70/month.

Resource Management

Resource management — understanding team capacity, preventing overallocation, and balancing workloads — is essential for scaling teams.

  • ClickUp: Resource management is included from the Unlimited plan ($7/user). Workload views (Business, $12/user) show team capacity at a glance. Set capacity per user, see who's over or under allocated, and rebalance work visually.
  • Monday.com: Resource management is Enterprise only. There's no way to get capacity planning, workload management, or resource allocation on Monday.com without Enterprise pricing. The workload view gives some visibility on higher tiers, but true resource management with capacity settings requires contacting sales.

Verdict: Time Tracking & Resource Management

ClickUp wins overwhelmingly. Native time tracking at $7/user vs $19/seat is a $12/user/month difference — $144/user/year. For a 15-person team, that's $2,160/year in savings just for time tracking alone. ClickUp's time tracking is also more feature-complete with billable tracking, timesheet views, and estimate comparisons. On resource management, ClickUp offers it at $7/user while Monday.com gates it entirely behind Enterprise. For any team that needs to track time or manage capacity, ClickUp is the clear and dramatic winner.

Integrations & Ecosystem

No project management tool works in isolation — integrations with your existing tech stack determine how well the PM tool fits into your workflow. Both platforms offer extensive integration catalogs, but with very different access models.

ClickUp Integrations

  • Unlimited integrations from Unlimited ($7/user) — No monthly action caps. Connect ClickUp to Slack, Google Workspace, Outlook, GitHub, GitLab, Figma, Zoom, HubSpot, Salesforce, and dozens more without worrying about usage limits.
  • Native integrations: Slack, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Outlook, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Figma, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, OneDrive, and more.
  • Email integration (Unlimited+) — Send and receive emails directly within ClickUp. Turn emails into tasks, reply from tasks, and keep email communication connected to project work.
  • Zapier & Make — Connect to 5,000+ apps via Zapier or Make for integrations not natively supported.
  • API & webhooks — Full REST API and webhooks for custom integrations. Build anything your workflow needs.
  • 1,000+ integrations via native connectors, Zapier, and the ClickUp marketplace.

Monday.com Integrations

  • 200+ native integrations via the Monday.com marketplace: Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoom, Salesforce, HubSpot, Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Figma, Mailchimp, Shopify, Twilio, and more.
  • Microsoft Copilot integration — Monday.com's unique advantage. AI-assisted workflows that bridge Monday.com and Microsoft tools. For organizations on Microsoft 365, this is a genuine differentiator no other PM tool offers.
  • Action-based limits — Integration actions count against the same monthly pool as automations. Standard: 250 actions/mo, Pro: 25K actions/mo, Enterprise: 250K/mo. This means using integrations actively competes with using automations — a double bind.
  • monday apps framework — Developers can build custom apps and integrations using Monday.com's SDK and API. A mature developer ecosystem with a marketplace of third-party apps.
  • Product ecosystem integrations — Because Monday.com has CRM, dev, and service products, data flows naturally between its own products. Your sales pipeline in monday CRM can connect to delivery boards in work management without external integrations.

Verdict: Integrations

ClickUp wins on access and value; Monday.com wins on Microsoft and ecosystem breadth. ClickUp's unlimited integrations with no action caps from $7/user means teams can connect every tool without usage anxiety. Monday.com's shared automation/integration action pool (250/month on Standard) is a meaningful constraint — teams that run heavy integrations either hit their limit fast or must upgrade to Pro ($19/seat) for 25K actions.

However, Monday.com's Microsoft Copilot integration is unique and valuable for Microsoft-centric organizations. And Monday.com's own product ecosystem (CRM, dev, service) means less need for external integrations in the first place — data flows natively between Monday.com products. For organizations standardized on Microsoft or using Monday.com's full product suite, Monday.com's integration story makes more sense. For everyone else, ClickUp's unlimited approach is more practical.

Collaboration & Communication

Project management tools live or die by how well they enable team communication. Both platforms take collaboration seriously, but ClickUp goes further by including built-in chat — aiming to replace Slack alongside everything else.

ClickUp Collaboration

  • Task comments & @mentions — Threaded conversations on every task with @mentions, file attachments, rich text formatting, code blocks, and embedded screenshots.
  • ClickUp Chat — Built-in team messaging. Channels, direct messages, threaded conversations, and file sharing. The goal is to eliminate the need for Slack or Teams. Chat messages can be converted directly into tasks, bridging conversation and action.
  • ClickUp Docs — Collaborative documents with real-time co-editing, nested pages, embedded tasks and views, and the ability to turn doc content into actionable tasks. Think Google Docs meets project management.
  • ClickUp Clips — Screen recording and video messaging built into the platform. Record your screen, share clips with teammates, and attach them to tasks for asynchronous communication.
  • Guest access (Unlimited+) — Invite external collaborators (clients, contractors, partners) to work on specific areas without giving them access to your full workspace.
  • Email integration (Unlimited+) — Send and receive emails directly within ClickUp. Keep client communication connected to the tasks they relate to.
  • Proofing & annotation — Annotate images, PDFs, and designs directly in ClickUp. Creative teams can review and approve work without switching tools.

Monday.com Collaboration

  • Updates & mentions — Comment on any item, @mention teammates, and attach files. Conversations happen directly on tasks with rich formatting.
  • monday Docs — Real-time collaborative documents built into the platform. Create docs, collaborate simultaneously, and turn text into actionable items with live data connections to boards.
  • Unlimited free viewers — Give read-only access to stakeholders, clients, or executives without paying for additional seats. Available on all paid plans. This is a significant advantage for agencies, consulting firms, and organizations with many stakeholders who need visibility but don't need to edit.
  • Guest access (Standard+) — Invite external users to collaborate on specific boards without full workspace access.
  • Customizable notifications — Fine-tune notifications per board, item, or conversation to reduce noise.
  • No built-in chat — Monday.com relies on Slack/Teams integrations for real-time team messaging. There's no native chat feature within the platform.

Verdict: Collaboration

ClickUp wins on feature breadth; Monday.com wins on stakeholder access. ClickUp's built-in chat, screen recording (Clips), email integration, and proofing tools mean teams can theoretically communicate entirely within ClickUp — reducing tool sprawl. Monday.com's unlimited free viewers are a genuine advantage for client-facing teams — giving 50 stakeholders read-only access costs $0 on Monday.com but would require guest seats on ClickUp.

For internal-facing teams that want to consolidate communication tools, ClickUp's all-in-one approach is more comprehensive. For agencies and consulting firms with many external stakeholders who need visibility, Monday.com's free viewer model is simpler and cheaper.

Reporting & Dashboards

Reporting capability determines how well leadership can understand project health, team performance, and resource allocation. Both platforms offer dashboards and reporting — but with different strengths and at different price points.

ClickUp Reporting

  • Dashboards (Unlimited+) — Customizable dashboards with 50+ widget types including charts, tables, time tracking summaries, sprint burndown, portfolio views, and custom calculations. Available from the Unlimited plan. Business plan adds unlimited dashboards.
  • Sprint reporting (Business+) — Velocity charts, burndown/burnup charts, sprint point tracking, and retrospective analytics. Purpose-built for agile teams.
  • Time tracking reports (Unlimited+) — Timesheet views, billable vs non-billable breakdowns, estimate vs actual comparisons, and per-user/per-project time summaries.
  • Goal progress tracking (Unlimited+) — Visual progress bars and rollup metrics showing how tasks and projects contribute to goals and OKRs.
  • Workload reports (Business+) — Capacity utilization by team member. See who's overloaded and who has bandwidth at a glance.
  • Custom widgets — Build custom dashboard widgets using formulas, calculations, and filtered data views.

Monday.com Reporting

  • Dashboards — Customizable dashboards that pull data from multiple boards. Board limits per dashboard: 1 board (Basic), 5 boards (Standard), 20 boards (Pro), 50 boards (Enterprise).
  • Chart widgets (Pro+) — Bar charts, pie charts, numbers, batteries (progress indicators), and other visual widgets. The Chart View with full data visualization requires Pro ($19/seat).
  • Advanced analytics (Enterprise) — Deeper analytical capabilities with custom data slicing and cross-organizational insights.
  • monday Docs insights — AI-powered insights and summaries generated from project data.
  • Visual dashboard builder — Drag-and-drop dashboard creation with a clean, attractive interface. Monday.com's dashboards are more visually polished than ClickUp's, with better default styling.

Verdict: Reporting

ClickUp wins on depth and accessibility. Dashboards with 50+ widget types from the Unlimited plan ($7/user), dedicated time tracking and sprint reports, and goal progress tracking give ClickUp's reporting more analytical capability at lower price tiers. Monday.com's dashboard board limits (5 boards on Standard, 20 on Pro) can feel restrictive for organizations with many projects, while ClickUp's unlimited dashboards on Business ($12/user) remove that constraint entirely.

Monday.com's dashboards are more visually attractive by default — the polished, colorful interface extends to its reporting. But visual polish alone doesn't compensate for fewer widget types, fewer boards per dashboard, and chart views locked behind the $19/seat Pro plan. For data-driven teams, ClickUp provides more analytical power per dollar.

Security & Admin Controls

For organizations handling sensitive data — client information, financial records, healthcare data, or intellectual property — security features can be the deciding factor in a PM tool selection.

ClickUp Security

  • SOC 2 Type II certified
  • GDPR compliant
  • HIPAA compliance (Enterprise, with BAA)
  • Google SSO (Business, $12/user) — available earlier than Monday.com's Enterprise-only SSO
  • Full SSO/SAML (Enterprise)
  • SCIM provisioning (Enterprise)
  • SMS two-factor authentication (Business+)
  • Custom roles and permissions (Enterprise)
  • US/EU/APAC data residency options (Enterprise)
  • Enterprise API with advanced access controls (Enterprise)
  • Managed services (Enterprise)
  • White labeling (Enterprise) — customize ClickUp's branding for client-facing use

Monday.com Security

  • SOC 2 Type II certified
  • GDPR compliant
  • HIPAA compliance (Enterprise, with BAA)
  • Multi-level permissions (Enterprise)
  • SSO/SAML integration (Enterprise)
  • Audit log (Enterprise)
  • IP address restrictions (Enterprise)
  • Enterprise-grade security and governance (Enterprise)
  • Private boards (Pro, $19/seat)

Verdict: Security

ClickUp has a slight edge at mid-tier pricing. Google SSO on ClickUp Business ($12/user) gives growing teams identity management before they need Enterprise pricing, while Monday.com gates all SSO behind Enterprise. ClickUp's SMS 2FA on Business is another mid-tier security feature. Both platforms match at the Enterprise level with HIPAA, SCIM, and full SSO support. ClickUp's data residency options (US/EU/APAC) and white labeling capabilities are valuable for agencies and international organizations.

Both platforms meet enterprise security requirements at their top tiers. The practical difference is that ClickUp offers more security controls at mid-tier prices, while Monday.com concentrates security features at the Enterprise level.

ClickUp: Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

  • Unmatched feature-to-price ratio — $7/user/month includes time tracking, Gantt charts, goals, portfolios, resource management, unlimited automations, unlimited integrations, custom fields, forms, and guests. No competitor comes close at this price point.
  • Unlimited automations on all paid plans — No monthly action caps. Automate everything without usage anxiety. This single feature is ClickUp's biggest advantage over Monday.com.
  • True all-in-one workspace — Docs, whiteboards, chat, screen recording, email, goals, time tracking, and project management in one platform. Potentially replaces 4-5 separate tool subscriptions.
  • Most generous free plan — Unlimited members and unlimited tasks for $0. Monday.com's free plan caps at 2 seats.
  • Native time tracking at $7/user — Monday.com charges $19/seat for the same feature. A $144/user/year savings that adds up fast for teams.
  • Goals and portfolios at $7/user — Strategic planning features that Monday.com locks behind Enterprise pricing.
  • Deep customization — Custom statuses per space, custom fields, custom views, task relationships, automation chains, and workspace-level theming. ClickUp adapts to virtually any workflow.
  • Multi-model AI (Everything AI) — Access ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude within one tool. No other PM platform offers multi-model AI chat.
  • 1,000+ templates — More templates than any competitor for rapid workspace setup.
  • Built-in sprint management — Velocity tracking, burndown charts, and sprint points without needing a separate tool or product.

❌ Cons

  • Feature overload / steep learning curve — ClickUp's "everything app" approach means there's a LOT to learn. New users can feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of features, settings, and views. Setup time is real — budget 1-2 weeks for a team to get comfortable.
  • AI costs extra — Unlike Monday.com (which bundles basic AI), ClickUp's advanced AI (Everything AI) is a separate $9-$28/user/month add-on. A 10-person team on Unlimited + Everything AI pays $160-$350/month vs $70/month without AI.
  • Performance can lag under complexity — Very large workspaces with thousands of tasks and multiple levels of nesting can experience slower load times. Monday.com's more constrained structure tends to maintain snappier performance at scale.
  • No dedicated CRM product — ClickUp has no equivalent to monday sales CRM. You can build CRM-like workflows with custom fields and views, but it's not a purpose-built sales tool.
  • No service management product — No equivalent to monday service for IT ticketing and service desk workflows.
  • Chat is still maturing — ClickUp Chat exists but isn't as polished or full-featured as Slack or Microsoft Teams. Most teams still use an external messaging tool alongside ClickUp.
  • Can feel "dense" — The interface packs a lot of information into every screen. Visual-first thinkers who prefer Monday.com's clean, colorful aesthetic may find ClickUp's information density fatiguing.
  • No unlimited free viewers — Unlike Monday.com, ClickUp doesn't offer unlimited read-only access. Guest access is available but isn't the same as Monday.com's zero-cost viewer model.

Monday.com: Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

  • Broadest product ecosystem — CRM, dev tools, service management, and work management on one platform. No competitor (including ClickUp) matches this breadth. Companies can run sales, support, and project management on a single platform.
  • Best-in-class user experience — Monday.com's interface is widely considered the most intuitive and visually appealing in the PM space. Color-coded columns, drag-and-drop everything, and 200+ templates make onboarding fast. G2's "Highest User Adoption for Enterprises" award reflects this.
  • Unlimited free viewers on all paid plans — Give read-only access to stakeholders, clients, and executives without paying extra. Agencies with 50 client contacts viewing progress pay $0 for those viewers.
  • AI bundled into platform pricing — AI credits from Basic ($9/seat), AI Sidekick lite from Standard ($12/seat). No separate AI purchasing decision required. Simpler than ClickUp's add-on model.
  • Microsoft Copilot integration — The only major PM tool with native Copilot support. Bridges AI across Monday.com and Microsoft 365 for organizations in the Microsoft ecosystem.
  • Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader — Named a Leader in both Collaborative Work Management and Adaptive Project Management. Enterprise-validated at scale.
  • Cleaner, less overwhelming interface — Less information density than ClickUp means teams can focus without visual fatigue. The trade-off (fewer features visible) is a benefit for teams that don't need ClickUp's full feature set.
  • Faster performance — Monday.com's more structured data model generally delivers snappier load times than ClickUp's deeply nested workspaces.

❌ Cons

  • Automation caps are the biggest weakness — 250 actions/month on Standard ($12/seat) is unrealistically low for any team that takes automation seriously. Even Pro's 25K/month can feel limiting for large teams. ClickUp's unlimited automations at $7/user make this Monday.com's most painful disadvantage.
  • Integration and automation limits share the same pool — Using Slack + email + calendar integrations eats into the same 250-action limit as automations. Teams that want both automations AND integrations face a double bind on Standard.
  • Time tracking locked to Pro ($19/seat) — A feature ClickUp includes at $7/user. For a 10-person team, that's $190/month vs $70/month — a $1,440/year premium just for time tracking.
  • Goals, portfolios, and resource management are Enterprise only — Strategic features that connect daily work to organizational objectives require custom Enterprise pricing. ClickUp offers all three at $7/user.
  • 3-seat minimum on paid plans — Solo users or 2-person teams must pay for 3 seats minimum ($27/mo for Basic). ClickUp has no minimum seat requirement.
  • More expensive at comparable feature levels — To match ClickUp Unlimited's feature set, you'd need Monday.com Pro ($19/seat) for time tracking + Enterprise for goals/portfolios. That's potentially 3-4x the cost per user.
  • No built-in chat or messaging — Monday.com relies on Slack/Teams integrations for real-time communication. No native chat means your team still needs a separate messaging tool (and the integration actions to connect it).
  • No built-in screen recording — ClickUp's Clips feature has no Monday.com equivalent. Teams need Loom or similar for async video communication.

Total Cost of Ownership: Real-World Scenarios

Per-seat pricing tells part of the story. The real cost includes the features your team needs, the add-ons required, and the third-party tools you might need to supplement platform gaps. Here are three real-world scenarios comparing total annual cost.

Scenario 1: Small Agency Team (5 people)

Need: task management, time tracking, Gantt charts, client guest access, basic automations, Slack integration, goals tracking.

ClickUp Monday.com
Plan needed Unlimited ($7/user) Pro ($19/seat) — needed for time tracking
Monthly cost $35/mo $95/mo
Annual cost $420/yr $1,140/yr
Time tracking ✅ Native (included) ✅ Native (included at Pro)
Gantt charts ✅ Included ✅ Included (from Standard)
Goals/OKRs ✅ Included ❌ Enterprise only
Automations Unlimited 25,000/mo
Client access Guest access Unlimited free viewers

Winner: ClickUp saves $720/year (63% cheaper) and includes goals/OKRs that Monday.com doesn't offer at any mid-tier price. Monday.com's advantage is unlimited free viewers for clients — but $720/year in savings buys a lot of individual guest seats. For a small agency, ClickUp is the clear financial winner.

Scenario 2: Growing Product Team (15 people)

Need: time tracking, sprint management, private projects, dashboards, 25K+ automations/month, resource management, advanced reporting, SSO.

ClickUp Monday.com
Plan needed Business ($12/user) — for SSO, sprint reporting, workload Pro ($19/seat) + Enterprise for resource mgmt & goals
Monthly cost $180/mo $285/mo (Pro) or custom Enterprise
Annual cost $2,160/yr $3,420/yr (Pro) or custom Enterprise
Key extras on ClickUp Google SSO, unlimited automations, unlimited dashboards, sprint reporting, workload management, whiteboards, mind maps, SMS 2FA
Key extras on Monday.com 25K automations, time tracking, chart view, 20-board dashboards, formula column, private boards
Missing features No CRM, no service management No goals, no portfolios, no resource management (without Enterprise)

Winner: ClickUp saves $1,260/year (37% cheaper) while including more features. ClickUp Business at $12/user offers everything Monday.com Pro does plus goals, portfolios, resource management, Google SSO, unlimited automations, unlimited dashboards, sprint reporting, whiteboards, and mind maps. Monday.com Pro is missing goals, portfolios, resource management, and SSO — features that require Enterprise pricing. Unless your team specifically needs Monday.com's CRM or service management products, ClickUp delivers dramatically more value for a 15-person team.

Scenario 3: Department-Level Operations (50 people)

Need: portfolio management, resource planning, goals/OKRs, enterprise security, unlimited automations, AI features, time tracking, advanced reporting.

ClickUp Monday.com
Plan needed Business ($12/user) — covers all needs except HIPAA/custom roles Enterprise (contact sales) — needed for portfolios, goals, resource mgmt
Monthly cost $600/mo ~$1,250-$1,750/mo (estimated Enterprise)
Annual cost $7,200/yr ~$15,000-$21,000/yr (estimated)
Annual cost with AI $7,200 + $5,400-$16,800 AI = $12,600-$24,000/yr AI included in Enterprise pricing
Key difference All strategic features (goals, portfolios, resource mgmt, unlimited automations) at $12/user. AI add-on is the variable cost. Strategic features require Enterprise. AI bundled in. Microsoft Copilot integration. Full product ecosystem.

Winner: Depends on AI and ecosystem needs. Without AI, ClickUp Business at $7,200/year is dramatically cheaper than Monday.com Enterprise's estimated $15,000-$21,000/year — a potential savings of $7,800-$13,800 annually. With ClickUp's Everything AI added ($9-$28/user), the gap narrows but ClickUp is still likely cheaper ($12,600-$24,000 vs $15,000-$21,000).

Monday.com's Enterprise value proposition is its full product ecosystem (CRM + dev + service + work management + AI bundled) — if your 50-person department needs all of these, Monday.com's single-platform approach may justify the premium. If you primarily need project management with strategic features, ClickUp delivers equivalent capabilities for significantly less.

Best Use Cases for Each Platform

Choose ClickUp for:

  • Budget-conscious teams that need advanced features — If time tracking, goals, portfolios, and resource management matter to you, ClickUp's $7/user Unlimited plan is unmatched. No competitor gives you this much at this price.
  • Automation-heavy workflows — Any team that runs more than a handful of automations should strongly consider ClickUp's unlimited approach vs Monday.com's capped model. This is the #1 practical differentiator.
  • Agencies and service businesses — Native time tracking with billable/non-billable tracking, client guest access, goals for project KPIs, and docs for client-facing deliverables. The $7/user price point gives agencies more margin per client project.
  • Engineering and product teams — Built-in sprint management with velocity tracking and burndown charts, Git integrations, custom workflows per space, and the ability to connect sprints to goals and OKRs.
  • Teams replacing multiple tools — If you're currently paying for Asana/Monday + Slack + Notion + Toggl, ClickUp can potentially consolidate all four into one platform. The savings compound quickly.
  • Remote and async teams — Built-in docs, chat, screen recording (Clips), and email integration mean async communication happens where the work lives.
  • Power users and workflow architects — ClickUp rewards investment in setup with deep customization: custom statuses, custom fields, automation chains, workspace-level theming, and hundreds of configuration options.
  • Startups and small businesses — The most generous free plan in the PM space (unlimited members) lets you start for free and scale to $7/user when you need advanced features. No 3-seat minimum means you only pay for what you use.

Choose Monday.com for:

  • Organizations that need CRM + PM on one platform — monday sales CRM + work management eliminates the gap between closing a deal and delivering the project. Sales handoff to delivery is seamless when both live on Monday.com.
  • Visual-first, non-technical teams — Monday.com's colorful, intuitive interface gets teams productive faster with less training. Marketing, HR, operations, and admin teams often prefer Monday.com's lower-friction onboarding over ClickUp's feature-dense approach.
  • Microsoft ecosystem organizations — The Copilot integration and deep Microsoft Teams support make Monday.com the natural choice for companies standardized on Microsoft 365.
  • Client-facing teams with many stakeholders — Unlimited free viewers mean agencies can give 100 clients read-only access at zero marginal cost. This scales better than ClickUp's guest access model for large numbers of external viewers.
  • Companies wanting a multi-product platform — monday dev for engineering, monday service for IT support, monday CRM for sales — all sharing the same visual language and data model. Cross-departmental visibility without integration complexity.
  • Teams that prioritize UI/UX over feature count — If your team values a clean, polished interface and fast onboarding over maximum features per dollar, Monday.com's user experience is best-in-class.
  • Teams with simple automation needs — If you use fewer than 250 automations/month, Monday.com's Standard plan ($12/seat) offers a clean, visual project management experience without ClickUp's complexity.

Alternatives Worth Considering

If neither ClickUp nor Monday.com feels right for your team, these alternatives serve specific needs well:

  • Asana — The structured process management champion. Unlimited automations from the Starter plan ($10.99/seat), goals-first architecture connecting tasks to strategy, and enterprise-grade reliability (85% of Fortune 100 use it). More expensive per seat than ClickUp but more polished than ClickUp's approach. Best for process-driven organizations that want strategic alignment without ClickUp's complexity. See our Monday.com vs Asana comparison for details.
  • Notion — A flexible workspace for notes, docs, databases, and light project management. Not a dedicated PM tool, but its flexibility makes it popular with startups and small teams. Significantly less feature-rich for project management than either ClickUp or Monday.com, but excels at documentation and knowledge management. Best for teams that value docs alongside task management and have simple PM needs.
  • Trello — The original Kanban board tool, now owned by Atlassian. Simple, visual, and free for basic use. If all you need is board-style task management without time tracking, Gantt charts, or automations, Trello's simplicity is a feature. Best for small teams with simple workflows who want zero learning curve.
  • Jira — Atlassian's project management tool purpose-built for software development. Agile boards, sprint planning, bug tracking, and deep development integrations (Bitbucket, Confluence). Not designed for marketing, HR, or non-technical teams. Best for engineering-only teams, especially those already in the Atlassian ecosystem.
  • Linear — A fast, modern issue tracker built for product and engineering teams. Opinionated about workflows (Triage → Backlog → Sprint → Done) with keyboard-first navigation and snappy performance. No customization overhead — Linear tells you how to work, not the other way around. Best for product teams that value speed and focus over flexibility.
  • Basecamp — Simple, opinionated project management with flat pricing ($299/month unlimited users). No per-seat pricing means it gets cheaper per person as you scale — at 50 users, that's $5.98/person/month. Best for teams that want simplicity, predictable costs, and strong opinions about how work should be organized.
  • Smartsheet — Spreadsheet-based project management for teams that think in rows and columns. Strong automations, resource management, and enterprise features with an Excel-like interface. Best for operations teams transitioning from Excel-based project tracking who want familiar UX with PM capabilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ClickUp or Monday.com better for small teams?

ClickUp wins for small teams. Its free plan supports unlimited members (vs Monday.com's 2-seat cap), and the $7/user Unlimited plan includes time tracking, goals, portfolios, and unlimited automations — features Monday.com gates to $19/seat Pro or Enterprise. A 5-person team on ClickUp Unlimited pays $35/month vs $95/month for Monday.com Pro. The only exception: if you need CRM alongside PM, Monday.com's ecosystem is the better choice.

Which has better AI features?

Monday.com wins on bundling — AI credits from $9/seat, no separate purchase needed. ClickUp wins on depth — Everything AI ($9-$28/user add-on) provides multi-model AI chat with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, plus AI automations and image generation. For most SMBs, Monday.com's simpler approach is more practical. For power users wanting multi-model AI, ClickUp is more capable.

Can I use either for free?

Yes. ClickUp's free plan (unlimited members, unlimited tasks, Kanban/Calendar/Sprint views) is dramatically more useful than Monday.com's (2 seats, 3 boards, no automations). For teams of 3+ on a budget, ClickUp's free plan is the only viable option.

How do automations compare?

The biggest practical differentiator. ClickUp offers unlimited automations on all paid plans from $7/user. Monday.com caps at 250 actions/month on Standard ($12/seat), 25K on Pro ($19/seat). Integration actions share Monday.com's same pool. For automation-heavy teams, this single difference can justify choosing ClickUp.

Which is cheaper?

ClickUp is cheaper at every comparable feature tier. ClickUp Unlimited ($7/user) includes more features than Monday.com Pro ($19/seat). For a 10-person team needing time tracking: ClickUp = $70/month vs Monday.com = $190/month. That's $1,440/year in savings.

Does ClickUp or Monday.com have better integrations?

Both have extensive integration catalogs. ClickUp offers unlimited integrations with no action caps from $7/user. Monday.com has 200+ native integrations but caps actions at 250/month (Standard) — shared with automations. Monday.com's unique advantage: Microsoft Copilot integration. ClickUp's advantage: unlimited usage without worrying about monthly limits.

Which has more project views?

ClickUp offers 11+ views (including mind map, whiteboard, sprint, and activity views) vs Monday.com's 8. More importantly, ClickUp makes views available at lower tiers — Gantt charts at $7/user vs $12/seat. For visual variety per dollar, ClickUp leads.

Should I switch from Monday.com to ClickUp?

Consider switching if: you're constantly hitting automation limits, paying $19/seat for time tracking ClickUp includes at $7/user, or missing goals/portfolios that require Monday.com Enterprise. Don't switch if: you rely on Monday.com's CRM or service products, your team loves the visual interface, you need Microsoft Copilot integration, or switching costs (migration, retraining) outweigh annual savings.

Final Verdict: ClickUp vs Monday.com in 2026

ClickUp and Monday.com are both excellent project management platforms — but they serve fundamentally different priorities.

Choose ClickUp if you want the most features per dollar in the project management space. Period. ClickUp's $7/user Unlimited plan includes time tracking, Gantt charts, goals, portfolios, resource management, unlimited automations, and unlimited integrations — a feature set that requires Monday.com Pro ($19/seat) at minimum and Enterprise for full parity. For a 15-person team, that's a potential $2,160+ per year in savings. Add in ClickUp Docs, Chat, Whiteboards, and screen recording, and you're potentially consolidating 4-5 separate tool subscriptions into one. The trade-off is complexity — ClickUp rewards teams willing to invest in setup and learn its dense feature set.

Choose Monday.com if you want the most polished, intuitive project management experience with the broadest product ecosystem. Monday.com's CRM, dev tools, and service management modules mean your entire company — sales, engineering, support, and operations — can work on one platform. The visual interface gets teams productive faster with less training. Unlimited free viewers are unmatched for client-facing organizations. And the Microsoft Copilot integration is a genuine differentiator that no competitor offers. The trade-off is cost — you'll pay more per user and face automation caps that ClickUp doesn't impose.

Here's the honest summary most comparisons won't give you:

  • On pure value: ClickUp wins. It's 22% cheaper per user at entry level and includes 2-3x more features at every price tier.
  • On automations: ClickUp wins. Unlimited vs capped is not a close comparison.
  • On user experience: Monday.com wins. The interface is cleaner, onboarding is faster, and the learning curve is gentler.
  • On product ecosystem: Monday.com wins. CRM + dev + service + work management under one roof is unique.
  • On AI: Monday.com wins on simplicity (bundled). ClickUp wins on depth (multi-model, add-on).
  • On stakeholder access: Monday.com wins. Unlimited free viewers is a meaningful advantage for client-facing teams.

For most SMBs making a decision today, ClickUp delivers more value per dollar — especially for teams that need time tracking, automations, and strategic planning features. Monday.com is the better choice for organizations that need a full business platform spanning CRM, development, and service management, or teams that prioritize user experience and fast adoption over feature density.

Both platforms are actively competing and improving. Whatever you choose in 2026 will be better by 2027. Choose the one that matches how your team works today, and focus on actually using it — the best PM tool is the one your team will consistently adopt.

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