Competition among project management software is generally intense. Popular names such as Asana, Trello, and Basecamp dominate this market space. However, there are a few modern alternatives offering a host of essential features at attractive pricing. The two most popular alternatives are Monday.com and Wrike.
In this blog, we’ll try to compare and contrast the two modern project management tools under the following aspects:
- Overall Feature Comparison
- Pricing
- Getting Started
- User Interface
- Integrations
- Security Compliances
- Bottom Line
Overall Feature Comparison
Most modern project management tools generally enable their users to quickly add other team members, assign tasks/routines, customize workflow, and track the progress of their work all the way to completion. Resource management, custom dashboards, calendar views, structuring by folders, projects, and sub-tasks & auto-assignment based on task are some of the most sought features in this space.
Both Monday.com and Wrike are heavily tiered, with features distributed across their many pricing plans. Let’s do a quick comparison of their standout differences:
Pricing
Both Wrike and Monday.com offer free trials for customers to try out their products.
Wrike offers a dedicated forever free pricing plan, which monday.com does not offer.
In Wrike’s free plan, you get all the basic features such as board view, task management, activity view, spreadsheet view, basic integrations(Google drive, box, etc), 2 GB of storage space and file sharing. If your team is very small, and you want all the bare minimum features, Wrike’s free plan might be the right pick for you!
Wrike’s paid plans start at $9.80/user/month. Features such as Gantt charts, task management, sharable dashboards are available in all paid plans. Time tracking, custom fields and Workflows, task approvals, calendars, and request forms are available from the “Business” plan priced at $24.80/user/month. Pricing for plans higher than “Business” is not publically available. Almost all of the security features (two-factor authentication, SSO) are exclusively reserved for the “Enterprise” plan, which commands a hefty fee. Wrike also has the option of adding premium features to any pricing plan through “Add-ons”. This adds a lot of flexibility to organizations requiring some features from a higher plan.
Wrike pricing plans
Monday.com’s pricing strategy is unconventional. Across all plans, you can purchase licenses in groups of multiples of 5. On a macro-scale, this might seem expensive, but it is not. For 5 users, monday.com’s entry-level plan will cost $25 per month, whereas the entry-level paid Wrike plan would cost you around $49 per month. The downside is, you might have to overpay for user licenses, in certain scenarios. The entry-level plan “Basic” offers features such as unlimited boards, embeddable forms, kanban view and storage space of 5 GB. Basic security features such as two-factor authentication are available in all plans. The most popular monday.com plan – “Standard” offers access to integrations, automation, and dashboards.
Monday.com pricing plans
Getting Started
Signing up for a Monday.com’s 14-day credit-card-free trial is pretty straightforward. An email is all that is required for verification. After a short questionnaire requesting personal and professional details, you’re then asked to invite your teammates/coworkers to the platform. The next step is to select the desired template. Monday.com offers quite a range of templates to choose from, and there are plenty of videos and onboarding guidance for assistance. The downside is, when signing up, you’re automatically placed in the pro plan, and it is not possible to try out features in higher tiers – while in a trial.
Creating a Wrike account is also fast-paced, quick and very similar to monday.com. Once the e-mail is verified and basic profile information is gathered, Wrike lets you quickly started with a trial with any of its pricing plans. Like monday.com, there are several templates to help you get started, and each comes with its own unique advantages.
Both monday.com and Wrike offer detailed getting started and account configuration guides on their knowledge bases. Live customer support and training/webinar materials are also available readily in both tools, for those who seek it.
User Interface
Since project management tools inherently help you optimize the time spent on projects, it is implicit that such tools must have a great user interface to help users spend more time on getting things done rather than hours on the tool. Monday.com is a perfect candidate with great user experience and ease of use. With vivid color schemes and a distinct navigation bar, every single setting on the app seems just a click away. The transitions between different areas are fluid, and overall the application seems very fast and responsive. In-built help section and on-the-fly tips make onboarding a new user into the Monday.com a breeze.
To make your coworkers feel comfortable, monday.com offers many customization and branding options. For example, the main menu logo and e-mail headers are completely customizable.
Custom Branding options in Monday.com
Wrike’s user interface seems challenging to use at first. Wrike Assistant helps you get back on track, in case you need assistance inside the platform. Wrike also offers preset themes to customize the look of your Wrike workspace.
Workspace themes in Wrike
Integrations
Both monday.com and wrike let you enjoy continuous real-time data syncing with other products through integrations. Monday.com integrates seamlessly with Slack, Github, Asana, Jira, Dropbox, Gmail, Pipedrive, etc. In addition, Monday.com (formerly Dapulse) offers an open API system – allowing developers to create their own third-party integrations through code!
Monday.com integration management page
Wrike boasts integrations with Gmail, IBM, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Projects, Box, Slack, Salesforce, etc. Both monday.com and Wrike integrate with Zapier – allowing access data on many other 1000+ apps and services like HappyFox.
Wrike’s integration partners
Security and Compliances
Security is a priority for every company these days and it is important that all your data is securely stored on the internet. Monday.com’s TLS v1.2 with strong ciphers to protect data in transit, and AES-256 to encrypt data at rest. Wrike does match monday.com with the same level of encryption on its servers. Both Wrike and monday.com comply with ISO and SOC certifications and assure compliance with the GDPR and EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.
Monday.com offers strong native security solutions. From varying levels of password policies to two-factor authentication, top-level security is assured for your company. If you use multiple SaaS products, monday.com also offers SAML and Google Apps based SSO options. Taking enterprise-grade security to the next level, monday.com also offers “Audit Log”. This log allows Admins to control and spot any suspicious activities and activate the Panic Button if needed. For enterprise customers, monday.com offers advanced features such as “Session Management”, HIPAA compliance, 99.9% uptime SLA, and granular account-level permissions.
Security and Authentication Settings in Monday.com
Wrike on the other hand, Wrike reserves almost all of its security-related features to its highest tier. Leveraging corporate identity directory and a centralized login to Wrike is possible through Active Directory and SAML 2.0. Other features we’ve talked about for monday.com like password policy, user audit reports, IT admin controlled permissions, and two-factor authentication are available in Wrike too!
Security and Authentication Settings in Wrike
Bottom Line
Monday.com is designed for teams of all sizes, it helps both small businesses and larger enterprises. It’s so adaptable, it is easier to switch to a higher monday.com pricing plan as your company size grows. Wrike, on the other hand, is better suited for medium to large enterprises with its distinctive tiered plans that promote team collaboration. If you’re just starting out, Wrike’s free plan is worth considering.
With both the tools offering powerful feature sets, rigid security measures and competitive pricing, it all boils down to your company’s UX and business preferences! But, you can’t go wrong with either!
HappyFox is an omnichannel helpdesk, with integrations with popular project management tools such as Jira and GitHub. Want to know more? Then Schedule a demo with us to see things in action!
