In this SmartSuite vs Monday.com comparison, I will show you the key differences between these two project management software. I will compare SmartSuite to Monday.com based on features, pricing, user interfaces, my experience, and pros and cons.

I spent numerous hours with both project management tools, and I am here to share the benefits and limitations of each tool to ensure you make the right choice.

Now, let’s dive into the side-by-side comparison of SmartSuite vs Monday.com!

My ratings: SmartSuite vs Monday.com

Key differences between SmartSuite and Monday.com

Here is a short overview of the key differences I found in the SmartSuite vs Monday.com showdown:

What is SmartSuite?

SmartSuite is a collaborative work management platform that helps teams deliver projects, run more efficient processes, and streamline workflows. It has a fresh design compared to the typical project management software.

SmartSuite has a mobile version for iOS and Android devices as well, so you can track your projects anywhere.

What is Monday.com?

Monday.com is an intuitive project management platform mostly for teams, but individuals can also utilize its free version. Thanks to its security measures and integration options, Monday.com is ideal for enterprises as well.

With this project management tool, you can create workflows, automate processes, and collaborate on projects with your team members.

You can use Monday.com on the web and on your desktop for both Mac and Windows. Furthermore, Monday.com has mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.

Comparison: SmartSuite vs Monday.com

First, I will show you the features of both project management tools one by one. Second, I will guide you through their user interfaces, integration options, and pricing. Lastly, I will show you the pros and cons of SmartSuite and Monday.com and their alternatives and reveal my pick.

Key features

Let’s start the SmartSuite vs Monday.com review with the key features of SmartSuite!

SmartSuite’s features

Workspace

SmartSuite allows users to create and manage multiple workspaces. To select a different workspace, you only need to use the company name dropdown menu on the home page and select another one.

Once you enter your workspace, you can easily select the projects (solutions) you want to work on.

This project management software uses a different structure than others. In your workspaces, you will find your solutions. So, the workspaces are collections of different solutions. A solution can be anything from a table, records, or projects.

Under the solutions, you can access the tables. The tables include different records, which are individual entries. In the records, you have fields that store specific data about your project.

Let’s see the project management tools of SmartSuite!

Project management tools

SmartSuite implemented a drag-and-drop function, which works smoothly. During my SmartSuite review, I had a feeling that it was an upgraded and user-friendly Excel when I used its tables or sort options.

This work management tool offers numerous view options for your projects and workflows. If you click on the “Create New View” tab, you will access many view types.

It has Gantt charts, Kanban boards, a timeline, and a dashboard view, so you can easily track progress and identify bottlenecks. The dashboard view is especially efficient for proper resource management in a project team, as you can get a look at your team members’ capacity.

What I particularly enjoyed is the tools you can use to display, sort, filter, and group information. They really went into the details to manage your databases with the highest efficiency. Such capabilities make SmartSuite an ideal solution to not only manage your projects but also company-wide databases.

On the left-hand side, you can access the view options. You can easily customize it with SmartSuite’s drag-and-drop function.

Overall, SmartSuite’s key features are great for teams to manage their projects and data in an organized way. People who love Excel will definitely enjoy SmartSuite’s solutions.

Let’s see the task management features!

Task management features

If you remember the structure of SmartSuite, records are basically the tasks. With SmartSuite, you can add due dates, assignees, status, and many other parameters for your tasks. However, there are way more options when it comes to task management.

You can add custom fields to your tasks so you can customize them in-depth. For example, you can insert time-tracking logs, formulas, addresses, and many others for each task.

An additional tool that I found useful during my SmartSuite review is the color codes. Using SmartSuite’s color codes, you can get a quick look at how the projects are going.

Ultimately, SmartSuite offers a wide range of customization options for your task management. After reviewing +15 project management software, I think there is no other tool that has the same level of personalization options for tasks.

Templates

If you click on “Add solutions,” you can select the templates. SmartSuite offers many templates for teams and workflows. I tried a couple of templates, and I was quite satisfied- not only with their numbers but also their quality.

After you insert the template you want to use, you can easily personalize its parameters and build up your projects and databases.

Let’s take a look at the team collaboration features!

Team collaboration features

Real-time collaboration tools are the heart of every project management tool. SmartSuite did not let me down in this.

Using SmartSuite, multiple team members can view and edit the projects at the same time. Also, you can see other team members where they work exactly at the table or records. I appreciated the option to send a link to any page, record, or report as an email attachment.

If you open the member directory, you can invite team members and add teams. This team collaboration feature provides an overview of who is online, including basic data about their role, interests, skills, and location. You can reach out to them no matter where they are working.

Essentially, team members can create profiles, and SmartSuite allows them to share the information they want about themself using the member directory.

If you click on the notifications, you can access the unread comments, mentions, and tasks assigned to you. It is a useful tool for getting real-time updates about the tasks and projects you are involved in.

Permissions and roles

Let’s talk about permission and roles. These help you make your data secure and accessible to the people who want to work with it. SmartSuite has two levels of permissions.

Role-based access determines the maximum permission level that can be assigned to you or your team members. You can find this in the settings menu under your workspace information.

However, you can also provide people with guest access so they can view the records that you assigned to them. The number of guest accesses depends on the subscription.

Furthermore, you can add solution permissions for your team members. With this type of permission, you can control who can view, create, modify, or delete records in your solutions (i.e., projects).

During my SmartSuite review, I also checked the workflow automation features, which are key aspects for many of you. Let’s see what I found!

Automation capabilities

With SmartSuite, you can create workflow automation to accelerate your work by eliminating manual steps and repetitive tasks. To access the workflow automation, just click on the top of the solution you entered and select this option.

It is very smooth to set up automated workflows. It follows the “when and then” logic and you can add further conditions. You can create automation for events like creating or updating records, submitting forms, and more.

Thanks to SmartSuite’s email integration with Outlook and Gmail, you can set up workflow automation for events when you receive an email.

Monday.com’s features

Let’s check Monday.com’s features now!

Home page

Whenever I test project management tools, I always love to take a look at the home page, as it can provide a quick overview of your projects and tasks. So, a good home page or dashboard can save time and give you the comfort of knowing what you need to deal with today.

Monday.com’s home dashboard is more like a simple page that shows what you visited lately. If you want to know more about your tasks, you need to go to the My Work tab.

Here, you can get quick access to all the tasks and projects assigned to you. Also, Monday.com offers some options to customize your home dashboard.

Nevertheless, I discovered during my Monday.com review that other software like ClickUp or Asana provides more options to customize your home page. Monday.com offers such customization and a more detailed dashboard view under your workspaces, but I will talk about it later.

Now, let’s move on to Monday.com’s project management tools!

A comprehensive project management tool

With Monday.com, you can organize your projects into several workspaces. When creating a project, you can decide whether you need a new workspace for it or if you want to involve it in an existing one.

It is quite straightforward to set up a project. You need to select the column types you want to include and the project view you want to apply.

Once you are done with it, you can start adding your tasks and their parameters. Let’s talk about the view options for a minute.

Monday.com offers many view options to visualize your projects from different aspects. You can use the Gantt chart, Kanban boards, calendar, and workload view. Nevertheless, if you hit the plus icon, more view options will show up. And there will be even more if you select the explore more options.

I believe this project management software is among the ones I tried, yet it provides the most view options. It is also great that it does not take too much time to load and that the new project view options are used.

For teams, the workload view could be very helpful in reviewing resource allocation. As I work alone, it is not that suggestive, but it can clearly represent how the workload is allocated in your team.

Furthermore, Enterprise customers can create portfolios, where you can get a holistic view of multiple projects in one place.

Templates

Monday.com offers some project templates for different industries and teams. Using such ready-made templates, you can create projects even faster.

Overall, I loved that there are plenty of templates, and you can easily personalize them. Just a quick side note: maybe it is just me, but to access the templates, Monday.com loaded at least a few minutes.

Task management features

During my Monday.com review, I realized how easy it is to add and assign tasks to others. You can add a new task with one click and select its status, priority level, timeline, owner, and due date.

In addition, Monday.com allows you to drag and drop individual tasks and move them irrespective of the view option you use.

It is also great that you can create more columns to track your tasks effectively. Furthermore, you can customize the label or create your own.

Once you have created a task, you can add subitems to break down more complex tasks. As you can see, I added 5 subtasks to my main task called AI note-takers YT video. If you click on the task, it will show the additional tasks under this item.

After reviewing Monday.com’s task management tools, I was satisfied, but I missed one thing. I could not find the option to add recurring tasks. Although it is a small task management tool, it can be quite useful in avoiding adding recurring tasks manually.

The only way to add recurring tasks is to use Monday.com’s automation.

Dashboards with custom widgets

Custom dashboards are useful for data visualization and displaying the key information of all your projects in a single layout. You can apply +30 widgets and apps here so you can understand better the project performance, progress, workloads, budgets, and more.

This is exactly what I expected from a good dashboard view, and this is what I missed on the home page. Overall, the customized dashboard was one of the best project management tools I discovered during my Monday.com review.

Collaboration features

You can invite your team members to your workspace and start working on projects right away. The first step to getting your project teams onboard and collaborating is to add them as owners to the tasks.

You can start discussions in your projects, mention others, attach files, and leave comments. Furthermore, you can do the same under each task.

Another useful team collaboration feature is the update feed. Using this Monday.com feature, you get notified when someone mentions or assigns a task to you.

Lastly, you can share projects with your team members and change the permission level to a member, admin, or viewer.

Ultimately, Monday.com has decent team collaboration features. It has all the essential features a project management tool needs to organize a team’s work.

Automation tools

You can manage and create custom automation with Monday.com. The automation feature is quite an intuitive and simple tool.

You only need to select the criteria for when the automation should be triggered and the required action in such cases. Depending on the trigger you’ve picked, you might need to select a condition as well.

Docs

Using Monday.com, you can create and draft documents. You can either start from scratch or use a template.

You can add numerous types of formats, such as text, tables, widgets, lists, and more. Furthermore, you can use Monday.com’s AI assistant to help you write and summarize the text.

During my Monday.com review, I found this an easy-to-use tool, which is completely ideal for creating a company knowledge base or writing meeting notes.

Time tracking

When adding columns to your projects, you can select the time-tracking tool as well. Once you add it to your tasks, you only need to hit the start button, and that is.

If you need to export the time tracking column to Excel, you only need to click the column menu dropdown and select “Export Column Data to Excel.” With this, you can collect the time you spend on each task and report it easily.

I think such a tracking feature is sufficient for most people. If you need more advanced time tracking, I typically recommend using a dedicated app for this, as it can give you a much more detailed breakdown of how you manage your time.

User interface

Now, let’s take a look at both SmartSuite’s and Monday.com’s user interfaces!

SmartSuite’s user interface

SmartSuite has an intuitive and user-friendly interface and follows a structure different from most project management software. But once you understand its logic, it will be easy to find the tools you need.

That said, SmartSuite has a learning curve. It took time for me to understand what I could and could not do with SmartSuite.

Monday.com’s user interface

Monday.com has an incredibly intuitive interface. It is easy to navigate on it, and you can find all the key features with a few clicks. I love that it is simplified, and I do not have the feeling that it is packed.

Integrations

It is time to check the integration options in the Monday.com vs SmartSuite battle!

SmartSuite’s integrations

SmartSuite offers some native integrations, so you can connect this work management tool with Google Drive, Salesforce, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Hubspot, and more.

In addition, you can connect SmartSuite with Zapier, which allows you to access an additional +7,000 third-party apps.

Monday.com’s integrations

Monday.com offers over 200 third-party integrations, including Adobe Creative Cloud, Slack, and Outlook. Furthermore, Monday.com has a Zapier integration as well, so you can access an additional 7,000 apps.

Pricing

Here, I will show you both productivity apps’ pricing models to see which one is better in the Monday.com vs SmartSuite comparison.

SmartSuite’s pricing

Let’s see what I found during my Monday.com vs SmartSuite review when it comes to pricing.

Free plan

Using the Free plan, a maximum of three users and one guest user can utilize SmartSuite. With the free version, you can create five solutions and have 1,000 records per solution. Also, you will access 100MB of file storage; a 14-day recycle bin and activity history.

When I looked at the features included in the Free Plan, I was surprised. SmartSuite’s free version has numerous tools you can use for free.

You can access all the real-time collaboration tools, many project view options, basic permissions, workflow automation, and all the task management features. However, you can use SmartSuite’s email integration, and some of the features have limits.

Overall, SmartSuite has an outstanding Free plan compared to other project management tools.

Team Plan

The Team plan is $12 per user per month if you choose the yearly billing. If you want to have monthly billing, it is $15 per user per month.

Using SmartSuite’s Team plan, you can have unlimited users, one quest user per paid user, unlimited solutions, and 5,000 records per solution and table. You will access a 1-year activity history and a 30-day recycle bin.

This plan covers almost all the view options except the resource management view and the folders. You can utilize all the collaboration features and get more extensive workflow automation.

Based on my experience, the Teams plan is ideal for small businesses.

No matter which paid plans you want to try, you will get a 14-day free trial, so you can make sure that SmartSuite is the best software for you.

Professional plan

If you opt for the Professional plan, it will cost you $30 per user per month when choosing the annual billing. In the case of monthly billing, it is $34 per user per month.

The Professional plan has all the features included in the Team plan, plus 100,000 records per solution, 100GB of file storage, and a 45-day recycle bin. With this plan, you will access all the view options, email integration, and more advanced permissions.

The Professional plan was designed for small and mid-sized businesses that need more advanced permissions and higher limits on the features.

Enterprise plan

Furthermore, SmartSuite offers an Enterprise plan for organizations that need advanced features, security, and support. It is $45 per user per month in the case of annual billing. If you want to choose the monthly billing, the Enterprise plan is $50 per user per month.

Compared to the Professional plan, it has more advanced security features, and you will get a dedicated customer success manager.

Signature plan

Finally, SmartSuite has a Signature plan that offers full flexibility to customize features, usage limits, and more. You need to contact their sales team for this.

Monday.com’s pricing

Free plan

Monday.com’s free version has some limitations, and it is only sufficient for individuals at maximum. With the Free plan, you can access 3 boards, 8 column types, +200 project templates, unlimited docs, and the iOS and Android apps.

Basic plan

Monday.com has four paid plans. Whenever you decide to buy one of the paid plans of Monday.com, you need to know that there is no single-user subscription.

If choosing the Basic plan, you can add unlimited items, access to 5GB file storage, 500 AI credits per month per account, prioritized customer support, and you can create a dashboard based on 1 board. Nevertheless, you can give read-only access to unlimited free viewers.

You can get the Basic plan for $9 monthly if purchasing the annual subscription. If you choose the monthly billing, it is $12 per month per user. With the Free and Basic plans, you can access the Kanban boards.

Based on my experience, this plan might be ideal for small businesses, but it lacks some critical features.

Standard plan

With the Standard plan, you can use the timeline, Gantt, and calendar views and access the automation and integrations. Also, you can create a dashboard that combines five boards and provides 20GB of file storage.

It is $12 per month per user if billed annually. If you want to pay on a monthly basis, it will cost $14 per month per user.

Compared to the Basic plan, the Standard plan offers more options to visualize projects, more space for your files, and longer activity logs (i.e., 6 months).

Pro plan

The Pro plan starts at $19 per month if the annual billing is chosen. Otherwise, it is $24 monthly per user.

With the Pro Plan, you access the private boards, chart view, time tracking, formula column, and more automation, integrations, dashboards, and AI credits.

Utilizing such premium features, this plan is excellent for small and mid-sized businesses.

Enterprise plan

Lastly, Monday.com offers an Enterprise plan for larger businesses with custom pricing. The enterprise users get enterprise-scale automation and integrations, advanced security features, reporting and analytics, and 24/7 customer support.

My experience with SmartSuite

What I realized first during my testing was SmartSuite’s performance. It is super fast and has almost zero loading time.

I loved how they implemented this Excel-like approach when working with tables. You can easily link records to each other and save time with this solution.

The reason why I think it is one of the best software for teams is the level of focus they put on the permission levels. It has all the options you need to control who can access your data and projects.

During my SmartSuite review, I started to feel like it is more than just a project management software. It is a combination of a project and data management software. It combines aspects of databases, spreadsheets, and project visualization to manage your workflows.

Overall, SmartSuite was a huge surprise for me, and I think it is definitely among the top project management tools when it comes to work management.

My experience with Monday.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPIBOXK4bSE&list=PLrRm3Kq-V4Mfi9mLfBnJUVsCrlLuneCF_

Similarly to other project management tools, Monday.com has a learning curve. Nonetheless, it offers some video tutorials and support articles to help you find and use its features.

I particularly enjoyed using Monday.com’s project views. It has a wide range of options to review your projects from different angles.

Monday.com’s task management tools are easy to use, and you can customize the columns and parameters easily. The only thing I missed from Monday.com’s task management features is the recurring tasks.

Furthermore, the fully customizable dashboard stood out for me during my Monday.com review. Using its dashboard, you can utilize various widgets and apps to track your projects.

Ultimately, I had a positive experience with Monday.com, and the higher-tier plans have all the features a small business might need to manage projects.

SmartSuite’s pros and cons

At this point of my SmartSuite vs Monday.com review, let’s take a look at SmartSuite’s pros and cons!

SmartSuite’s pros

First, SmartSuite has a generous free plan that includes numerous advanced features. I think it has one of the most extensive free versions I’ve tried.

Secondly, SmartSuite is not only a project management software but a data management tool as well, and it fantastically combines spreadsheets with other project management tools.

Moreover, I loved the level of detail of the permissions and roles. You can fully customize who can access your projects with this feature.

Lastly, SmartSuite has many pre-built templates for marketing campaigns, product development, etc., that you can use to create projects faster.

SmartSuite’s cons

My only con was SmartSuite’s mobile app. It was quite slow, and it still has some bugs. However, the good news is that SmartSuite’s team regularly launches new updates to improve the experience and broaden its features.

Also, it is a bit expensive compared to other project management tools.

Monday.com’s pros and cons

Considering all the factors, let’s summarize the pros and cons I discovered during my SmartSuite vs Monday.com review!

Monday.com’s pros

First, Monday.com has an intuitive user interface and a shorter learning curve than other project management tools.

Secondly, it has great features to manage tasks with numerous customization options.

In addition, you can personalize your dashboards so you can display the key information of all your projects in a single layout.

Finally, Monday.com offers many view options for your projects.

Monday.com’s cons

I did not like that you can not add recurring tasks on Monday.com unless you use automation.

Also, I discovered during my Monday.com review that its mobile app has some bugs.

Lastly, Monday.com is a pricey project management tool.

Alternatives to Monday and SmartSuite

If you are still unsure about your pick after this SmartSuite vs Monday.com battle, here are some great alternatives:

• ClickUp: An easy-to-use AI-powered project management software that you can use for complex projects and workflows.
• Taskade: An AI-powered workflow and lightweight project management app.
• Wrike: A more robust project management platform with advanced features.
• Coda: An all-in-one app that is similar to Notion, however, with more massive project management tools
• Notion: It provides a centralized workspace where you can organize your thoughts, notes, tasks, projects, and documents in one place.
• Motion: It is an AI calendar app, but it also works as a project management software.
• Asana: A popular and easy-to-use project management tool.
• Hive: A project management app for small teams with advanced collaboration and AI features.
• Teamwork.com: An excellent project management software solution for client-facing teams.

My pick: SmartSuite vs Monday

Overall, both SmartSuite and Monday.com are great project management tools. SmartSuite has a steep learning curve compared to Monday.com but offers more advanced features for work management.

What I especially love about Monday.com is its visualization options for your projects. Also, it offers more customization options than SmartSuite.

So, if you need a traditional app for managing your tasks and workflows, Monday.com might be the right project management tool for you. Alternatively, if you want to have a more data-driven project management app, SmartSuite is your pick.

I hope I was able to help you guys. As always, I will update this Monday.com vs SmartSuite article over time so you guys have up-to-date information about these project management tools.

Related articles:

• 8 Best Project Management Software in 2025 | My Honest List
• SmartSuite Review 2025: A Hidden Gem
• Monday.com Review 2025: Is the $228 Price Tag Justified?
• SmartSuite vs ClickUp 2025 | A Honest Comparison
• Notion vs Monday: An Unfiltered Comparison (2025)
• ClickUp vs Monday: My Findings After +6 Months (2025)

Why you can trust our reviews

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Our mission? No fluff, no shortcuts—just honest, hands-on insights from productivity pros.

Have a question or suggestion? I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out anytime at aronkantor@thebusinessdive.com.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Monday.com’s biggest competitor?

Probably Asana, ClickUp, and Wrike are the biggest competitors of Monday.com.

Is SmartSuite better than Asana?

If you read my review (rage) about Asana, you probably know what I think about that project management tool. However, staying objective, I think both tools have completely different feature sets for managing projects.

While Asana has a shorter learning curve and offers some cool features to manage projects, SmartSuite has an Excel-like approach for the projects. My pick would be SmartSuite, but it totally depends on your preferences.

Is Notion or Monday better?

If you are looking for a project management solution, Monday.com is an ideal pick. It has all the features a project manager or a team leader needs to track project timelines and manage complex workflows.

However, if you want to have an all-in-one workspace with note-taking, task manager, and knowledge base tools, I recommend Notion. While Notion lacks advanced project management tools, it offers various features to boost productivity and make your business processes more efficient.

The full comparison here: Notion vs Monday: An Unfiltered Comparison (2025)

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