Asana vs monday.com vs ActiveCollab: Features, Pricing and Reviews Compared
- Starting price
- $10.99/user/mo · free plan
- Ease of use
- 8.8
- Functionality
- 8.7
- Value for money
- 7.6
- Customer support
- 8.0
Best for
- Marketing, operations and product teams juggling dozens of projects with shared people
- Managers who need portfolio and goal roll-ups, not just a task list
- Teams that want a polished mobile and desktop experience
- Starting price
- $9/user/mo · free plan
- Ease of use
- 8.7
- Functionality
- 8.9
- Value for money
- 7.5
- Customer support
- 8.1
Best for
- Teams that want to design their own workflow rather than adopt someone else's
- Operations and marketing teams that need dashboards leadership will actually look at
- Companies replacing spreadsheets with something shareable and automated
- Starting price
- $3.50/user/mo
- Ease of use
- 7.0
- Functionality
- 7.8
- Value for money
- 6.8
- Customer support
- 7.1
Best for
- Agencies and consultancies that bill clients for time
- Small creative teams running several client projects
- Nonprofits and educational institutions eligible for 50% off
Our verdict
Asana and monday.com tie at 83/100. Flexible views of the same work: list, board, timeline, calendar. Asana is the better fit for cross-functional teams that need clear ownership. monday.com makes more sense if you need highly visual boards that are easy to customize or you want to start cheaper ($9/user/mo vs $10.99/user/mo).
On Asana: Asana is the project tool we recommend for teams that run many concurrent projects and need to see how they roll up into goals and portfolios. Task management is fast and keyboard-friendly, views are flexible, and the automation builder is approachable. The weakness is cost: the useful views live on Starter, the planning features live on Advanced, and per-user pricing adds up for large teams who could get by on monday.com or ClickUp.
Features comparison
The 8 project management capabilities we check on every product, ordered by importance to buyers.
| Feature | Importance | Asana | monday.com | ActiveCollab |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanban boards | 88% | Included | Included | Included |
| Mobile app | 71% | Included | Included | Included |
| Automations | 67% | Included | Included | Included |
| Gantt charts | 64% | Included | Included | Included |
| Time tracking | 59% | Included | Included | Included |
| Guest access | 55% | Included | Included | Included |
| Docs & wikis | 48% | Not included | Included | Included |
| API access | 33% | Included | Included | Included |
What stands out in each
Tasks, subtasks and views
Every task has an assignee, due date, custom fields and subtasks, and the same project can be viewed as a list, board, timeline, calendar or Gantt chart. The interface is quick and the keyboard shortcuts make bulk editing fast.
Workflow builder and rules
Starter includes a visual builder for intake-to-done workflows with triggers and actions (assign, move section, set field, notify Slack). Automation counts are capped per month by plan.
Goals, portfolios and workload
Advanced adds portfolios that roll projects up with status, owner and progress, goals linked to the work that drives them, and a workload view that shows who is over capacity. This is the layer that justifies Asana over cheaper tools.
Reporting
Project dashboards with charts of tasks by status, assignee and custom field; Advanced extends to cross-project reporting. Exports to Tableau and Power BI exist for deeper analysis.
Boards and column types
Boards are tables with typed columns (status, people, date, timeline, numbers, formula, files, dependencies). Groups, subitems and multiple views (kanban, calendar, Gantt, chart, map) make one board serve several audiences.
Automations
A recipe-style builder ("when status changes to Done, notify owner and move to group") covers most needs without code. Standard allows 250 actions a month, Pro 25,000; heavy teams hit the Standard cap quickly.
Dashboards
Widgets for charts, numbers, timelines, workload and battery (progress) pull from one or many boards. Dashboards are the most presentable in the category, which is why leadership teams tend to like monday.com.
Work management products
monday work management is the core; monday CRM, monday dev and monday service are packaged variants with the same engine. Buying the right product avoids rebuilding a CRM from a blank board.
ActiveCollabTask views and dependencies
Tasks can be viewed as a list, Kanban board, or Gantt chart. Task dependencies update automatically when a related task changes, which keeps schedules current without manual edits.
Built-in time tracking
A stopwatch or manual entry records time against any task, and timesheets can be viewed by team or individual. Edit limits and review controls help keep records accurate.
Workload and capacity planning
Each person can have custom capacity hours, work days, and bank holidays set. Workload views across projects help managers spot overloaded team members before deadlines slip. This feature is on the Pro+ plan.
Estimates to invoices
Estimates can be sent to clients and converted into projects and tasks once accepted. Billable time and expenses feed into invoices with flexible tax rates, payment reminders, and recurring billing.
Pricing comparison
Asana starts at $10.99/user/mo with a free plan (30-day trial); monday.com starts at $9/user/mo with a free plan (14-day trial); ActiveCollab starts at $3.50/user/mo (Free trial). Plans are shown as the vendors publish them; the BSR Value subscore reflects what you get for the money.
Personal
Up to 10 users. Tasks, lists, boards and calendar.
- Up to 10 teammates
- Unlimited tasks and projects
- List, board and calendar views
- Basic integrations
Starter
Timeline, Gantt, workflow builder, dashboards and 250 automations a month.
- Timeline and Gantt views
- Workflow builder
- Project dashboards
- Custom fields and forms
Advanced
Goals, portfolios, workload, approvals and 25,000 automations.
- Goals and portfolios
- Workload management
- Time tracking
- Approvals and proofing
Enterprise
SAML, admin controls, audit logs and data residency.
- SAML SSO and SCIM
- Admin console
- Audit log API
- Data residency
Paid plans are billed per user with a minimum of two seats, and seats come in bundles at some sizes. The free Personal plan caps collaborators at ten. Monthly billing costs about 20% more than annual. Asana AI features are included on paid plans but some advanced AI capabilities are limited by tier.
Value for money: 7.6/10 · Monthly, Annual, Minimum 2 seats · Vendor pricing page ↗
Free
Up to 2 seats, 3 boards, 200 items.
- 2 seats
- 3 boards
- Unlimited docs
- 200+ templates
Basic
Unlimited boards and items, 5GB storage, one dashboard per board.
- Unlimited items
- Unlimited free viewers
- 5GB storage
- Prioritised support
Standard
Timeline, Gantt, guest access, 250 automation and integration actions.
- Timeline and Gantt
- Calendar view
- Guest access
- 250 automations/mo
Pro
Private boards, time tracking, formulas, 25,000 automations.
- Private boards
- Time tracking
- Formula column
- 25,000 automations/mo
Seats are sold in minimum packs (3 on paid plans, in bundles above that), so a two-person team pays for three. Prices shown are annual; monthly billing is roughly 18% more. Automation and integration actions are capped per plan. Guest access starts at Standard; free viewers are unlimited.
Value for money: 7.5/10 · Monthly, Annual, Minimum 3 seats · Vendor pricing page ↗
ActiveCollabPlus
For small teams running more than a few projects that want free unlimited clients.
- Up to 3 members
- Unlimited clients for free
- Unlimited projects and tasks
- 3 task views: List, Kanban, and Gantt
Pro
For growing teams that need to see where time and expenses go.
- Unlimited members
- Time reporting and expense tracking
- Expense reporting
- 100GB storage on monthly plan, 125GB on yearly plan
Pro+
For teams that run the whole business from an idea to an invoice, with workload and profitability oversight.
- Workload management and capacity planning
- Utilization tracking and holiday and days-off management
- Integrated invoicing
- Project budgeting and budget vs. cost tracking
100+ seats
For large teams of 100 seats or more that want a custom seat count.
- Add a custom number of seats
- Lower per-seat price at this volume
- Development and customer success teams help with the transfer
- Demo scheduled through the sales team
Plans bill monthly or yearly, and yearly billing saves up to 17%. Educational institutions and nonprofits get 50% off, and the 14-day trial needs no credit card. The Self-Hosted edition is a one-time purchase with no price shown on the page, and custom feature builds carry an added cost.
Value for money: 6.8/10
Integrations comparison
4 integrations in common · 6 only in Asana · 5 only in monday.com · 8 only in ActiveCollab. Logos link to our review when we cover the tool.
Both connect to
Only ActiveCollab8Which one is best for my use case?
Who each product is built for, who should look elsewhere, and the jobs it gets bought for, from our editorial review and the vendor's own customer profile.
Ideal for
- Marketing, operations and product teams juggling dozens of projects with shared people
- Managers who need portfolio and goal roll-ups, not just a task list
- Teams that want a polished mobile and desktop experience
Not for
- Very small teams who need Gantt or timeline views; the free plan lacks them
- Budget-conscious teams that need Advanced features (workload, time tracking) at scale
- Teams that want a database-style tool with heavy customisation (consider monday.com or Notion)
Common use cases
Sells to: Small businesses, Mid-size companies, Enterprises, Nonprofits. Common industries: Marketing and creative, SaaS and technology, Operations, Education, Healthcare, Financial services.
Ideal for
- Teams that want to design their own workflow rather than adopt someone else's
- Operations and marketing teams that need dashboards leadership will actually look at
- Companies replacing spreadsheets with something shareable and automated
Not for
- Teams that need only simple task lists; the Basic plan is thin and Standard is the real floor
- Organisations with strict seat budgets; minimum seat packs raise the effective price
- Teams who want opinionated project structure out of the box (Asana does this better)
Common use cases
Sells to: Small businesses, Mid-size companies, Enterprises. Common industries: Marketing and creative, Operations, Construction, SaaS and technology, Real estate, Nonprofits.
ActiveCollabIdeal for
- Agencies and consultancies that bill clients for time
- Small creative teams running several client projects
- Nonprofits and educational institutions eligible for 50% off
- Organizations that need data on their own servers
Not for
- Solo users who need a permanent free plan
- Teams that need utilization reports right away
Common use cases
Sells to: Freelancers, Small businesses, Mid size businesses, Enterprises.
Support, training and setup
How you get help, how you learn the product, and how fast you can be running.
- Support score
- 8.0/10
- Ease of use
- 8.8/10Leads
- Support channels
- Email and chat (paid plans)
- Help center
- Community forum
- Priority support (Enterprise)
- Training
- Asana Academy
- Documentation
- Live webinars
- Customer success (Enterprise)
- Deployment
- Cloud / SaaS
- iOS app
- Android app
- Mac app
- Windows app
- Typical setup
- Same day
- Languages
- English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese +7
- Support score
- 8.1/10Leads
- Ease of use
- 8.7/10
- Support channels
- 24/7 support (all plans)
- Help center
- Community
- Dedicated customer success (Enterprise)
- Training
- monday.com Academy
- Documentation
- Webinars
- Template center
- Tailored onboarding (Enterprise)
- Deployment
- Cloud / SaaS
- iOS app
- Android app
- Mac app
- Windows app
- Typical setup
- Same day
- Languages
- English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian +8
ActiveCollab- Support score
- 7.1/10
- Ease of use
- 7.0/10
- Support channels
- Email/Help Desk
- FAQs/Forum
- Knowledge Base
- Chat
- Training
- Live Online
- Documentation
- Videos
- Deployment
- Web
- Typical setup
- Not published
- Languages
- In-app localization in 20 languages (spe
Security and reliability
Certifications and controls as published by each vendor. We list them; we don't audit them.
- Security
- SOC 2 Type II
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- HIPAA (Enterprise)
- SSO (SAML)
- Two-factor authentication
- Data residency (Enterprise)
- Public API
- Yes
- Mobile apps
- iOS · Android
- Company
- San Francisco, CA · 1,800+ employees · founded 2008
- Security
- SOC 2 Type II
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- HIPAA (Enterprise)
- SSO (Pro+)
- Two-factor authentication
- Audit log (Enterprise)
- Public API
- Yes
- Mobile apps
- iOS · Android
- Company
- Tel Aviv, Israel · 2,500+ employees · founded 2012
ActiveCollab- Security
- GDPR ready
- 2FA
- Different user roles
- SSL-only connections with AES256 encryption
- Separate database and filesystem space for each cloud account
- Firewall with SSH key access over VPN
- 24/7 monitoring
- Redundant infrastructure with regular off-site backups
- Servers in Canada, United States, and France
- 99.95% uptime
- Public API
- Yes
- Mobile apps
- None published
- Company
- Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Pros and cons
Our editors' pros and cons for each product. No user reviews have been published for these products yet.
Pros
- Flexible views of the same work: list, board, timeline, calendar
- Clear task ownership and dependency tracking
- Large integration library and a mature API
Cons
- Free plan caps collaborators and lacks timeline view
- Pricing climbs quickly for larger teams
- No built-in wiki or long-form documents
Pros
- Highly visual boards that are easy to customize
- No-code automations and dashboards
- Broad use beyond project management: CRM, HR, marketing
Cons
- Three-seat minimum and seat bundles on paid plans
- Time tracking and advanced features need Pro or above
- Can become cluttered on large, complex projects
ActiveCollabPros
- A 14-day trial includes every feature and does not require a credit card.
- Unlimited clients are free on every plan, so adding clients does not raise the cost.
- Won estimates convert into projects and tasks, and billable time flows into invoices.
- Live chat and video calls are available to all customers at no extra cost.
- Native desktop and mobile apps are included in every plan.
Cons
- There is no free plan, and the cheapest tier is capped at three members.
- Workload management, capacity planning, and integrated invoicing appear only at the Pro+ tier.
- Utilization reports are marked as coming soon on the features page.
- Self-Hosted and 100-plus seat pricing require a demo request and have no published price.
Full side-by-side table
monday.com leads in 6 of 9 rows where they differ. Green marks the leader in each row.
ActiveCollab 72Leads 3 of 9 rows · Best for agencies and consultancies that need tasks, time tracking, and invoicing in one tool| Feature | Asana Best for cross-functional teams that need clear ownership | monday.com Best for teams that want a highly visual, customizable board | ActiveCollab Best for agencies and consultancies that need tasks, time tracking, and invoicing in one tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scores | |||
| BSR score | 83 | 83 | 72 |
| Ease | 8.8 | 8.7 | 7.0 |
| Features | 8.7 | 8.9 | 7.8 |
| Value | 7.6 | 7.5 | 6.8 |
| Support | 8.0 | 8.1 | 7.1 |
| Pricing | |||
| Starting price | $10.99/user/mo | $9/user/mo | $3.50/user/mo |
| Free plan | Included | Included | Not included |
| Free trial | 30-day trial | 14-day trial | Free trial |
| Features | |||
| Features included | 7 / 8 | 8 / 8 | 8 / 8 |
| Kanban boards | Included | Included | Included |
| Gantt charts | Included | Included | Included |
| Time tracking | Included | Included | Included |
| Guest access | Included | Included | Included |
| Automations | Included | Included | Included |
| Docs & wikis | Not included | Included | Included |
| API access | Included | Included | Included |
| Mobile app | Included | Included | Included |
| Details | |||
| Biggest strength | Flexible views of the same work: list, board, timeline, calendar | Highly visual boards that are easy to customize | A 14-day trial includes every feature and does not require a credit card. |
| Biggest weakness | Free plan caps collaborators and lacks timeline view | Three-seat minimum and seat bundles on paid plans | There is no free plan, and the cheapest tier is capped at three members. |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android, Windows, Mac | Web, iOS, Android, Windows, Mac | Web |
| Best fit | 2–5,000 users | 3–2,000 users | Freelancers, Small businesses, Mid size businesses, Enterprises |
Asana vs monday.com vs ActiveCollab: FAQs
Is Asana better than monday.com?
Asana and monday.com tie on BSR score at 83. Asana is stronger on ease of use, while monday.com wins on support. The right choice depends on which of those matters more to your team.
Which is cheaper, Asana or monday.com or ActiveCollab?
ActiveCollab has the lowest starting price at $3.50/user/mo. Asana starts at $10.99/user/mo; monday.com starts at $9/user/mo. Per-user pricing, annual discounts and add-ons change the real total, so price out your actual seat count.
Which has more features?
monday.com covers 8 of the 8 project management features we track, including Docs & wikis which not every product here offers.
Do Asana and monday.com integrate with the same tools?
Both connect to Slack, GitHub, Dropbox, Zapier. Only Asana lists Microsoft 365, Canva, Box; Only monday.com lists Google Drive, Adobe Creative Cloud, Mailchimp; Only ActiveCollab lists Stripe Payments, PayPal Payments, TestLodge.
How this comparison was made
Each product was scored on the same four subscores (Ease, Features, Value, Support) from the vendor's published pricing and documentation, our editorial review, then combined into a 100-point BSR score. Hands-on tested: Asana, monday.com. Feature checks use one list per category; plans, integrations, support and security come from what each vendor publishes and are refreshed when listings change. Green marks the leader in a row. Sponsored placements are labeled elsewhere on the site and never touch a comparison. Full methodology →