Project managers have one of the most challenging roles in any organization.
From coordinating goals, tasks, and people, to ensuring every project is delivered on time and under budget, it’s a constant juggling act where one dropped ball can cause chaos.
Thankfully, we now have project management software to help plan projects, manage time, and allocate resources. They are one of the most valuable tools available to companies today, and having the right one can set you apart from the competition.
monday.com is a popular project management tool that has been gaining traction in recent years. Its colorful design and appealing user interface has made it a go-to solution for businesses of all sizes.
However, its complex platform, steep learning curve, and complicated pricing structure suggest it might not be the best bet for agencies. In this list, we’ll give you a run down of the best monday.com alternatives for managing client work.
1. Teamwork.com
Founded in 2007, Teamwork.com is trusted by more than 20,000 companies (including over 6,000 agencies) to better track and manage projects from start to finish. As one of the only project management platforms designed specifically for agencies and client work, this intuitive software provides everything you need to manage the full lifecycle of client work in one place.
Its powerful capabilities include:
Advanced agency-specific features
Teamwork.com offers a range of features specifically designed to cater to the unique needs of agencies. With Teamwork.com, you get access to rich features such as subtasks, task dependencies, client users, and uncapped integrations – providing more options, more freedom, and more opportunities to empower your team.
You'll also find a range of comprehensive planning tools, including time tracking, workload management, and resource management functionalities tailored to agency workflows.
Powerful reporting and analytics tools
"I played around with monday.com for quite a while, but I couldn't get it to work how I wanted. Teamwork.com offered better customization on automations, workflow and reporting, allowing me to tailor the interface for me and my team."
~ James Colburn, Senior Design Manager at Harding Retail
Teamwork.com has a full-suite of reporting and analytics features, allowing you to gain deep insights into the performance of your agency, team productivity, and financial metrics. With customizable reports, visual dashboards, and advanced analytics like profitability tracking, users can make data-driven decisions that will drive the business forwards.
Premium client accessibility
Some project management platforms make it difficult to add new clients or projects to your project planning tool. They want you to pay for each new client user or have you jump through hoops to bring them onboard.
With Teamwork.com, you can add unlimited client users completely free of charge. You can also tailor their privacy to control exactly what they can and can’t see easily from your dashboard settings., so no one has more access than they need to see for their own projects.
Unlimited integration actions
With monday.com, the Standard Plan limits you to only 250 actions. The Pro Plan limits you to 25,000 actions between two integrated apps per month.
That’s a big gap in between, and makes it extremely difficult to understand which plan to choose. You would need to track each integration action you use each month to ensure you are getting the best deal for your agency’s needs.
With Teamwork.com, there is no cap on the number of actions performed through an integration. And with over 100 app integrations to choose from compared to monday.com's 40, you can focus on streamlining your workflows and getting work done.
Additional key features
Dedicated support and training via Teamwork.com's customer support and training resources
Simple yet powerful platform makes it easy to setup and learn the features you need to succeed
Native time tracking available on all plans to better manage team resources, and bill clients in an accurate and timely manner
Customized dashboards with different view options to help users better visualize project progress
Choose from an extensive library of pre-existing templates, or create your own based on your most repeated work
Advanced workload management features to ensure no one is over or underutilized
Advanced collaboration tools like messages, chat, files, proofs, and notebooks
2. Asana
Credit: AppSumo
Asana is another popular name in the project management field. It offers powerful productivity tools that help teams stay on top of tasks and projects. It’s perfect for small teams that need plenty of customization and flexibility, and has more advanced features and tools than monday.com.
Key features
Task comments, proofing, and project messaging for better collaboration and communication
Reports with customizable goals, milestones, and status updates
Multiple integrations with tools like Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, and Salesforce
Pricing
The premium plan for Asana begins at $10.99/month, when you choose to bill annually rather than monthly.
3. Clickup
Credit: ClickUp
Clickup is a monday.com alternative designed for large teams needing many different integrations and features to manage their project management needs. It has advanced customizations and a detailed onboarding process that you don’t get in many other project management tools.
Clickup is a solid monday.com alternative that has more features without a high price tag. Its free version is great for teams that don’t need a ton of customization options.
Key features
Advanced onboarding with step-by-step instructions and tools
Customizable tasks with automation and custom fields
Relationship management with links, documentation, and integrations
Pricing
Clickup has a popular free plan, but also has a Business plan for mid-sized teams that begins at $12/month.
4. Wrike
Credit: Wrike
Wrike is another popular name in the project management tools category. It’s great for teams of all sizes, and helps you manage your projects in multiple ways depending on your preferred management style.
With Wrike, you can create task lists, action items, and subtasks, assign those tasks to different team members, and update progress. Additionally, you’ll be able to add notes so that new users understand the details of every line item.
Key features
Prebuilt templates to get up and running quickly
AI technology to automatically add tasks from bulk notes
Straightforward editing and updating features for tasks so they are always accurate
Pricing
The Professional paid plan from Wrike begins at $9.80/user/month, which makes it a powerful and affordable tool for small teams or individuals looking for project management support.
5. nTask
nTask is another monday.com alternative that provides the same level of project management capabilities while adding some other interesting features. With nTask, you can create habits that you can track and follow each day to ensure better work management and task completion.
nTask uses a similar easy-to-use interface as monday.com, making it a good option for novices and easy for teams to switch over and hit the ground running.
Key features
Recurring tasks that automatically reset each day, week, or month
Tracking tools for progress through each week and month
Issue management software to prioritize tasks and updates
Pricing
The Business plan of nTask begins at $8/user/month, making it affordable for small teams without many users.
6. Trello
Credit: Trello
If you’re looking for a visual project management tool, Trello is another great monday.com alternative to consider. This platform is designed with basic agency project management in mind, offering a simple interface and straightforward controls.
This tool allows you to organize your tasks on a digital bulletin board, which can be colored and customized to your needs. It is designed to help you deliver projects quickly and streamline your workflow.
Key features
Pre-built templates
Automation features for almost every action
“Power-Up” plugins and integrations with other software like Jira, InVision, and Slack
Pricing
Many features of Trello are free, making it a popular plan for startups and small businesses. They also have a Business plan that costs $9.99/month.
7. Freedcamp
Freedcamp is a cloud-based project management tool that helps you collaborate better in the workspace and juggle multiple projects at the same time. With the power of cloud computing, Freedcamp helps you improve your project management by simplifying collaboration between internal and external teams.
Key features
Free tools like invoices, CRM, calendars, and files
Advanced cloud computing for quicker collaboration
Simple interface, perfect for new project managers
Pricing
Many of Freedcamp's features are free, which is why it’s a popular choice among nonprofits and other businesses that operate outside of traditional fields. They do offer a Business plan for $7.49/month to unlock all features.
8. ProofHub
Credit: Proofhub
ProofHub is a team collaboration and project management tool that helps you stay on track with multiple projects, unlike monday.com. With ProofHub, you can manage all your projects and files in a single location, while also tracking who has been assigned to tasks and what still needs to be done for projects.
They also have many integrations to make project management easier on-the-go.
Key features
Custom fields for any document
Advanced search and discovery features to find documents
Built-in calendar tool for tracking deadlines
Pricing
The Ultimate Control plan begins at $89/month when billed annually rather than monthly.
9. Jira
Credit: Atlassian
Another great monday.com alternative is Jira. It is highly customizable, making it a great choice for teams that have complicated project workflows and detailed task lists.
Jira helps you assign tasks, track the progress of projects, and create detailed workflows while letting you track team milestones and set up advanced user permissions at the same time.
Key features
Project layouts and dashboards for Lean, Scrum, and Kanban methodologies
Visual roadmaps for improved timelines and organization
Drag-and-drop automation to improve task management
Pricing
The standard Jira plan begins at $7.50/user/month, which means the price can really add up for larger teams.
10. Basecamp
Basecamp is a monday.com alternative that helps you improve your project management processes while using automation to take the heavy lifting off your plate.
It lets you track and organize your projects and to-do lists while you upload files, communicate with your teams and clients, and make detailed notes on each task to improve success.
Key features
To-do lists for tracking tasks, deadlines, responsibilities, and project progress
Built-in storage for documents and images
“Campfire” chat for individual projects
Pricing
The Business plan for Basecamp is $99/month, making it more expensive than some of the other tools here.
Make your team and clients happier with Teamwork.com
While many teams rely on monday.com to handle their project management needs, its limited reporting capabilities, expensive investment, and steep learning curve make it not ideal for agencies and teams delivering client work.
Teamwork.com is more than just a powerful project management app. It also offers complete operations control, so you can maximize capacity and utilization, scale your agency, and delight clients, all in one easy-to-use platform.