monday.com vs ActiveCollab: Features, Pricing and Reviews Compared
- 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
monday.com comes out ahead at 83/100 versus ActiveCollab at 72. Highly visual boards that are easy to customize. monday.com is the better fit for teams that want a highly visual, customizable board. ActiveCollab makes more sense if you need a 14-day trial includes every feature and does not require a credit card or you want to start cheaper ($3.50/user/mo vs $9/user/mo).
On monday.com: monday.com is less a project tool than a visual database you shape into one, and that flexibility is its strength: boards, columns, automations and dashboards can model almost any process, from a sales pipeline to a content calendar. It is colourful and quick to learn. The costs to watch are seat minimums, the Standard tier being the real entry point (Basic lacks timeline and automations) and automation caps on busy boards.
Features comparison
The 8 project management capabilities we check on every product, ordered by importance to buyers.
| Feature | Importance | monday.com | ActiveCollab |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kanban boards | 88% | Included | Included |
| Mobile app | 71% | Included | Included |
| Automations | 67% | Included | Included |
| Gantt charts | 64% | Included | Included |
| Time tracking | 59% | Included | Included |
| Guest access | 55% | Included | Included |
| Docs & wikis | 48% | Included | Included |
| API access | 33% | Included | Included |
What stands out in each
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
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.
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
5 integrations in common · 14 only in monday.com · 9 only in ActiveCollab. Logos link to our review when we cover the tool.
Both connect to
Only ActiveCollab9Which 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
- 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
- 8.1/10Leads
- Ease of use
- 8.7/10Leads
- 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 (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
- 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 7 rows where they differ. Green marks the leader in each row.
ActiveCollab 72Leads 1 of 7 rows · Best for agencies and consultancies that need tasks, time tracking, and invoicing in one tool| Feature | 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 | 72 |
| Ease | 8.7 | 7.0 |
| Features | 8.9 | 7.8 |
| Value | 7.5 | 6.8 |
| Support | 8.1 | 7.1 |
| Pricing | ||
| Starting price | $9/user/mo | $3.50/user/mo |
| Free plan | Included | Not included |
| Free trial | 14-day trial | Free trial |
| Features | ||
| Features included | 8 / 8 | 8 / 8 |
| Kanban boards | Included | Included |
| Gantt charts | Included | Included |
| Time tracking | Included | Included |
| Guest access | Included | Included |
| Automations | Included | Included |
| Docs & wikis | Included | Included |
| API access | Included | Included |
| Mobile app | Included | Included |
| Details | ||
| Biggest strength | Highly visual boards that are easy to customize | A 14-day trial includes every feature and does not require a credit card. |
| Biggest weakness | 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 |
| Best fit | 3–2,000 users | Freelancers, Small businesses, Mid size businesses, Enterprises |
Not a match?
Other project management software we list, ranked by BSR score.
monday.com vs ActiveCollab: FAQs
Is monday.com better than ActiveCollab?
monday.com scores 83/100 against ActiveCollab's 72, a 11-point lead. Highly visual boards that are easy to customize. ActiveCollab is the better pick if a 14-day trial includes every feature and does not require a credit card matters more to you.
Which is cheaper, monday.com or ActiveCollab?
ActiveCollab has the lowest starting price at $3.50/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.
Do monday.com and ActiveCollab integrate with the same tools?
Both connect to Slack, Google Calendar, GitHub, Dropbox, Zapier. Only monday.com lists Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Outlook; 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: 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 →