monday.com vs Asana

monday.com and Asana are both work management platforms for planning projects and tracking tasks, and both are popular with marketing and cross-functional teams. Choose monday.com if you want to design your own boards and dashboards and get AI credits with every paid plan. Choose Asana if you need many projects to roll up into portfolios and company goals, with unlimited automations from the first paid plan.

What is the main difference between monday.com and Asana?

monday.com starts from a board. You build each workflow from columns such as status, owner, date and priority, then show it as a table, kanban board, timeline, Gantt chart or calendar. Asana starts from projects and tasks with owners, due dates and dependencies, then connects them upward: portfolios group related projects, and goals link daily work to company objectives.

Both have added AI. monday.com includes Sidekick, an AI assistant, plus a monthly allowance of AI credits on every paid plan, and its AI agents can draft a project plan, flag delayed work and send status reports. Asana offers AI Teammates, AI Studio and Asana Dash on paid plans, but charges for AI work per request.

How do monday.com and Asana compare on price?

Prices below were checked on each vendor's pricing page on 1 November 2026, per seat or user per month.

Both lists are in US dollars. monday.com says prices depend on your billing country.

The headline price favours monday.com, but compare like for like. Timeline and Gantt views come with Asana Starter at $10.99. On monday.com they start on Standard, at $12, or $14 billed monthly. monday.com's paid plans also start at 3 seats, so the smallest Basic bill is $27 a month on annual billing.

Automation and AI are priced differently too. Asana Starter includes unlimited automations. monday.com Standard includes 250 automation actions and 250 integration actions a month, and Pro raises both to 25,000. monday.com includes 1,000 to 3,000 AI credits a month depending on the plan. Asana charges $0.50 per AI request prepaid, or $0.60 pay as you go.

Which is easier to set up?

G2 reviewers mention a learning curve for both. monday.com reviewers most often praise its ease of use, but some describe a steep learning curve when rolling it out across several departments. Asana reviewers praise its user-friendly interface, but also mention a learning curve for new users, a cluttered interface and weak search.

The difference is in how much you design. monday.com gives you column types and more than 200 templates, and you shape each board yourself. That suits teams who want their own process, but someone has to build it. Asana's model is more fixed: tasks sit in projects, projects in portfolios, and portfolios ladder up to goals. Teams that work that way have fewer design choices to make.

Which has the better free plan?

Asana's. Both free plans are for two people, but Asana Personal includes unlimited tasks and projects, list, board and calendar views, and more than 100 free integrations. monday.com Free is limited to 3 boards, 3 docs and 8 column types, and it has no AI features.

For a team of three or more, neither free plan fits, so the trial matters more. monday.com offers a 14-day trial of Pro with no credit card. Asana offers a free trial of Advanced with no credit card but does not state its length.

Which works better for marketing teams?

Both are widely used for campaigns, content and creative requests.

monday.com fits marketing teams that want one flexible board per workflow. Content calendars, campaign plans and creative request queues can each have their own columns, with forms for intake, docs alongside, and dashboards that show managers progress and workload. Guest access for agencies and freelancers starts on Standard.

Asana fits marketing teams that run many campaigns in parallel. Forms turn requests into tasks and custom templates make repeatable campaigns quick to start, both on Starter, which also includes free guests. Advanced adds approvals and proofing for creative review, portfolios to track all campaigns together and goals to tie them to targets.

If creative review and reporting across many campaigns matter most, Asana Advanced has more built in. If you want visual boards and dashboards at a lower price, monday.com is the cheaper starting point.

Which works better for sales teams?

Neither work management plan is a CRM. monday.com sells a separate product, monday CRM, on the same board platform. It adds leads, contacts, accounts and deals, and on 1 November 2026 it started at €12 per seat per month billed yearly for a Netherlands visitor (no US dollar price was shown), with a 3-seat minimum. Our monday CRM review covers it in detail.

Asana's Advanced plan integrates with Salesforce, Tableau and Power BI, so sales operations teams can keep project work connected to CRM data. If you want pipeline management and projects from one vendor, monday.com is the more direct route. If you already run a CRM, either tool can handle sales-related projects such as onboarding or proposals.

What do users say about monday.com and Asana?

On G2, monday.com, now listed as monday AI Work Platform, holds 4.7 out of 5 from 17,885 reviews. Reviewers praise ease of use, collaboration and how it keeps information organised. Complaints focus on plan limits such as seat minimums, the learning curve across departments and limited customisation for some workflows.

Asana holds 4.4 out of 5 on G2 from more than 14,000 reviews. Reviewers praise its interface, task management and flexible workflows. Common complaints are the learning curve, useful features locked behind higher tiers, a cluttered interface and weak search. These ratings were checked on 31 October 2026.

The bottom line

Choose monday.com if your team wants to design its own boards, likes dashboards, and wants AI credits included at a lower entry price. Choose Asana if you manage many projects that must add up to portfolios and goals, want unlimited automations from day one, or need structured creative approvals.

Read more in our Asana profile and our monday.com project management review.