Key takeaways
monday.com vs. Microsoft Project: How are they different?
Pricing
Less expensive
More expensive
Project management tools
Beginner friendly
Highly advanced, only for power users
Template library
Large selection of templates
Limited selection of templates
Collaboration tools
With native tools but no built-in chat messaging
None, relies on Microsoft Teams and OneDrive
Ease of use
Very easy to learn and use
Extremely difficult to learn and use
Integrations
200+ third-party integrations to choose from
Integrates with other Microsoft products only
What is monday.com?
monday.com’s project management tool is monday work management, a self-described “work operating system” that gives users a highly customizable work management platform. With the right setup, you can use your monday.com boards to manage projects, resources, support tickets, and more. It also sports a user-friendly design and an extensive self-help database, making the platform easy to tailor to your needs.
monday.com also offers pre-built products including monday marketer, monday CRM, monday projects, and monday dev―all turnkey options for specific use cases. These product options make monday.com usable right out of the box. Just add in your data, such as project and task info, and you’re good to go. This makes monday.com a versatile platform and suitable for many businesses, especially if you want to stick with one software across multiple types of teams.Fore more information, see our full, in-depth review of monday.com project management and our comparison of Trello vs. monday.com.
Pros
- Plans starting under $10 a month
- 200+ software integrations
- Extensive knowledge base
- 24/7 customer support
- Built-in automation
Cons
- Very basic time tracking
- Limited portfolio management features
- No integrations or automations included in Basic plan
- Limited task dependencies
What is Microsoft Project?
Microsoft Project, or MS Project, is Microsoft’s own project management software. It comes in different versions, including Microsoft Project Online and an on-premises option. All versions integrate seamlessly with other Microsoft products but not with third-party software, a clear disadvantage compared to several Microsoft Project alternatives.
All MS Project versions also include a number of similar project management features—from task dependencies and auto-scheduling of tasks to advanced roadmaps. In fact, MS Project has such advanced project and portfolio management features that many project managers agree it is more software than most teams need.
If your team is managing several projects or you tackle complex works with many moving parts, you will be impressed by Microsoft Project. The platform also has been proven to be an effective tool for powerful project planning.
Pros
- Roadmaps and other portfolio project management tools
- Advanced time tracking
- Resource and budget management
- Detailed reporting available
- On-premise options
Cons
- High starting price
- Steep learning curve
- Support base is difficult to navigate
- Few integrations outside of Microsoft products
monday.com vs. Microsoft Project: A Detailed Comparison
Task management
Yes
Yes
Templates
Yes
Yes
Multiple project views
Yes
Yes
Budgeting and resource allocation
No
Yes
Collaboration tools
Yes
No
Mobile app
Yes
No
Offline mode
Yes
No
24/7 customer service
Yes
No
Pricing
Both monday.com and Microsoft offer multiple pricing tiers for their web-based project management solutions, but their pricing models show significant differences. monday.com offers a forever free plan for up to two people and a free trial that doesn’t require a credit card. Microsoft Project, on the other hand, requires a credit card for the free trial and also offers three different on-premise solutions in addition to the web-based app.
Free plan available
Yes
No
Free trial available for paid plans
Yes
Yes
Monthly subscription
Yes
Yes
Annual subscription discount
Yes
No
Tiered pricing
Yes
Yes
Enterprise plan
Yes
Yes
Nonprofit discount
Yes
No
On-premise server option
No
Yes
monday.com pricing
monday.com has five pricing plans, ranging from the Free plan to Enterprise. The free tier supports a maximum of two users, making it not suitable for team use. It also has the Basic, Standard, and Pro plans that come with a free trial that doesn’t require a credit card.
The pricing for the various tiers is as follows:
- Individual: Free forever for up to two seats
- Basic: $9 per seat per month, billed annually, or $12 per seat per month, billed monthly
- Standard: $12 per seat per month, billed annually, or $14 per seat per month, billed monthly
- Pro: $19 per seat per month, billed annually, or $24 per seat per month, billed monthly
- Enterprise: Pricing available upon request
Microsoft Project pricing
Microsoft includes basic project management features in its Microsoft 365 plans. It also offers three standalone paid plans for MS Project’s web-based subscription and three pricing plans for on-premise licenses. A 30-day free trial is available for the cloud-based solution, though a credit card is required to sign up.
Cloud-based subscriptions:
- Microsoft Planner: included in Microsoft 365, which starts at $8 per user per month
- Planner Plan 1 (formerly Project Plan 1): $10 per user per month
- Project Plan 3: $30 per user per month
- Project Plan 5: $55 per user per month
On-premises solutions:
- Project Standard 2021 costs $679.99 for a license for one PC.
- Project Professional 2021 costs $1,129.99.
- Project Server Plan: Contact for custom pricing quote.
Which to choose for pricing?
monday.com.
Here’s why: MS Project is very pricey. monday.com offers cheaper plans all around and helps you save through billing discounts and guest seats.
Project management features
monday.com and Microsoft Project offer the same basic project management features, but Microsoft Project goes way beyond with advanced features like automatic project scheduling and fully fledged resource management tools. However, these additional features may not be worth the trade-off when you factor in a steeper learning curve and higher level of complexity, especially if your team isn’t trying to manage a complicated portfolio of projects.
Task management
Yes
Yes
Template library
Yes
Yes
Budget management
Limited
Yes
Workload and resource allocation
Yes
Yes
Portfolio managemen
No
Yes
monday.com features
monday.com has adequate project and task management features for the average team. For instance, it includes lots of project views (including a Gantt chart and kanban board), simple task automations, and reporting dashboards. However, its project management features aren’t as robust as Microsoft Project, even on the higher tiers, which means that it’s not as well suited for project portfolio management.
monday work management does offer templates to help with budgeting and resource management, but it doesn’t have actual modules or tools for it. You’ll also need to upgrade to at least the Pro plan if you want the formulas in the templates to automatically update every time you make a change. While monday.com includes time tracking in the higher tier, the tool may be too basic for some teams.
Microsoft Project features
Microsoft Project has pretty much all the project management features monday.com does—and some more. For instance, Microsoft Project includes auto-scheduling, which will automatically fill in intermediary dates when you set a start and end date for the project. Project has an interactive roadmap you can use to track multiple projects at a glance, which is excellent for project portfolio management.
Microsoft Project also includes true budget and resource management tools, not just templates like the ones on monday.com. Microsoft Project also offers more advanced time tracking and timesheets. For example, your team can put in planned vacations and Microsoft Project will update due dates accordingly.
Which to choose for features?
It’s a tie.
Here’s why: Microsoft Project has more advanced features than monday.com, but Project’s tools may be an overkill for your team. Some project managers will prefer the simplicity of monday.com.
Ease of use
The lower the learning curve, the faster you’ll be able to fully take advantage of your new project management tool. Fortunately, monday.com is relatively fast to learn, and all paid plans come with 24/7 customer support. In contrast, Microsoft Project’s complex features and unintuitive design makes it difficult to master, and customer service could be improved.
24/7 customer support
Yes
No
Low learning curve
Yes
No
Intuitive interface
Yes
No
monday.com ease of use
monday.com has a colorful and intuitive design that is relatively easy to navigate. Various tools and modules are pretty much located in the places you’d expect, so it doesn’t take much time to find what you need. monday.com offers tons of templates to choose from, including templates for various project management methodologies. It’s also easy to build projects from scratch if you can’t find a template that suits your needs. monday.com also offers 24/7 customer service and daily live webinars for all paid users. Enterprise accounts get a dedicated customer service manager, customized onboarding and extensive training to ease the implementation process.
Microsoft Project ease of use
Unfortunately, Microsoft Project’s advanced features make it difficult to learn and navigate. This platform is designed for power users, not beginners, and even then, it takes some time to get used to it thanks to the somewhat intuitive interface. If you’re familiar with other Microsoft products, you’ll have a bit of a leg up on navigating the interface, but not by much.
MS Project offers far fewer templates than monday.com, so you’ll have to build much of it from scratch. There also isn’t much professional help offered for Project, which can be a hindrance since many people benefit from a more experienced coach walking them through the software. To really make the most of Project, you may need to be willing to invest extra time and money into external help.
Which to choose for ease of use?
monday.com.
Here’s why: monday.com offers turnkey products and tons of templates. It also has an intuitive user interface (UI) most people can learn quickly. MS Project, on the other hand, has a steep learning curve but offers little assistance in mastering the platform.
Integrations
Being able to integrate your project management software with other applications will level up its functionality and ensure that data flows smoothly from one platform to another. monday.com makes this possible with more than 200 native integrations; whereas Microsoft Project really only integrates with other Microsoft applications, which may be too limiting for some project teams.
200+ third-party integrations
Yes
No
Microsoft product integrations
Yes
Yes
Automations for integrations
Yes
No
monday.com integrations
monday.com has over 200 integrations with third-party products. Options include team collaboration tools, marketing apps, other project management software, and more. Keep in mind that monday.com does limit how many integration actions you can use each month. You don’t get any at all on the Free or Basic plan, and the Standard plan gives you only 250 integration actions per month. If you want more, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro plan, which gives you 25,000 actions each month.
Microsoft Project integrations
MS Project mostly integrates with other software from Microsoft. In fact, it relies on other Microsoft products for key features, so you’ll need to use Project as part of the wider Microsoft ecosystem. For example, Project doesn’t include any native features for team messaging or document storage, instead depending on MS Teams and OneDrive to fill in the gaps.
If you’re already sold on Microsoft products and don’t use much third-party software, then you’ll probably be fine with Project, but many teams will find the lack of integrations frustrating.
You can use external apps like Zapier to create more integrations, automations and workflow management. That’s an extra step, though, and can add more complexity and cost to an already complicated software.
Which to choose for integrations?
monday.com.
Here’s why: Microsoft Project is too limited with its Microsoft-only integrations. monday.com gives you way more options, and it offers easy automation recipes so you can make the most of those integrations.
monday.com vs. Microsoft Project: Can you use them together?
monday.com and Microsoft Project aren’t designed to be used together, and it would be redundant to use two different project management platforms when their features have a good degree of overlap. monday.com also does not offer an integration for Microsoft Project, although it does to many other Microsoft programs including Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Power BI. It’s better to pick one project management platform and stick with it.
monday.com vs. Microsoft Project: How to pick
While both monday.com and Microsoft Project are project management platforms, they are designed with distinctly different audiences in mind. monday.com is more beginner friendly, offering a lower learning curve and a more intuitive user interface. However, this lower learning curve does come with a tradeoff in terms of features, with monday having less advanced tools than Microsoft Project. monday.com also plays nicely with the rest of your business software stack, thanks to its 200+ integrations, making it the better choice if you need to integrate with many other platforms.
In contrast, Microsoft Project is a highly advanced project management software that is meant for power users with a lot of experience, and it comes with a difficult learning curve to match its powerful tools. It’s also designed to be used in conjunction with other Microsoft products—and only Microsoft products—offering little in the way of third-party integrations. For this reason, MS Project is the better project management tool for teams who are already fully committed to the Microsoft ecosystem.
Still not sure if either monday.com or Microsoft Project is right for your team’s needs? Browse our picks for the best project management software to see our other recommendations.
