Finding the right project management tool can be challenging at times. You want tools that are easy to use, have tons of features, and don’t look like they belong to a prehistoric era.
PRO TIP: Monday.com is the killer app for project management, but it’s missing one essential feature. Click here to scroll to that part of the article right now.
Monday.com offers all of these features packed into a single platform. This tool makes project management smooth and highly efficient, despite being on the higher end of pricing tiers.
What is Monday.com?
The most appropriate way of describing Monday.com is as a cloud-based work operating system that allows you to manage projects while collaborating with your team. You can work with your team to plan and execute projects from your desktop or mobile devices.
Monday.com is easy to use and offers brilliant features such as time-tracking, integrations, dependencies, customized workflows, and more. You will find Monday.com very familiar if you’re accustomed to working with spreadsheets, except it is way more visual and interactive as many other reviews point out. You can also find several other similarities with kanban apps.
Getting Started With Monday.com
You can sign-up on Monday.com using your work email, or you can also sign-in using your Google, Slack, or LinkedIn account.
Monday.com requires you to fill in some details to help you get a personalized experience on the platform. First, you’ll need to select your purpose, position, department, and team size.
Then you’ll need to select your company size, industry, and the work you intend to do using the platform.
Next, you can invite your team members and assign them their roles as “Admins”, or “Members”. Admins can invite and manage new users, while members can add and edit content.
You can create boards from the existing templates or start from scratch. Monday.com provides an extensive range of templates that are categorized according to work type and industries.
If you choose to start from scratch instead of using templates, this tool will guide you throughout the process with an interactive product tour.
The Missing Monday.com Feature - In App Image and File Annotation
So you might already be sold on Monday.com, that's great. Monday.com makes it easy to attach and embed images and files tickets and tasks, but they don't allow you to add annotations to those attachments. Imagine you want to add markup like arrows, boxes, highlights, callouts and other kinds of annotations to your images. It's a super common need.
Well, you can re-download the image you pasted in, open it in an annotation tool, save the annotated image, and replace it in Monday.com. But that's not efficient, and what happens when you want change your annotations? You can't, you have to start from scratch.
What if Monday.com integrated the Markup Hero annotation API. You could just click "annotate image" directly any project management ticket or task and instantly add your markup, click "done" and see the annotated image updated right in place. You don't even have to leave Monday.com.
Pretty cool? It is. Watch the 60 second video below to see exactly how it would work.
More of the "hands on" type, try this fully interactive demo instead. Just click the annotate button, add whatever annotations you want, click done and watch the magic.
Monday.com Features Overview
You will manage everything on Monday.com using boards. Boards are color-coded and organized visually. You can see each board’s assigned members and task progress, making it easy to keep track of your team.
Manage Work Easily With Boards
You are allowed to customize the boards as much as you need, even if you use templates. You can select colors, column numbers, available options, and more. You can also organize these boards into folders and select the boards to share with clients.
Collaborate Efficiently With Pulses
You can conduct all sorts of communication on Monday.com in the context of boards using Pulses, which makes it easier for you to keep it relevant. Pulses are blank rows that you can add to boards for adding comments, files, messages, and more. Your team is notified instantly about any communication that occurs using Pulses.
Keep track of Work with Timelines
If you’ve worked with Gantt charts before, you will find the Timeline of Monday.com very easy to use. You can use timelines to track tasks or projects over the period. You can edit timelines visually and view multiple timelines on a single timeline board to get a birds-eye view of your projects.
Find What You Need With Advanced Search
Monday.com boasts a powerful search engine that helps you search by tags, people, and mentions. It records your work in a fully-searchable format, allowing you to refer back to your work very efficiently.
Work On The Go With The Mobile App
Monday.com offers a mobile version for both iOS and Android devices. You can share files, images, updates, and feedback from your phone in real-time. Monday.com also has plans to introduce an offline mode, ensuring you can work on your projects whenever you want.
How Much Does Monday.com Cost?
Although there is no free tier available, you can opt for its 14-day free trial, which doesn’t require any credit card. The pricing structure of the four tiers is confusing, to say the least. Your final price depends on the number of people in your team, the tier you choose, and whether you choose to pay annually or monthly.
The main issue with the pricing is its option to select a range of team members instead of a specific number. For example, if you opt for its Standard plan and have a 10 member team, you’ll need to pay $120/month. But if you add one more member, you’ll have to pay an additional $60, as you now have to select the plan for 20 people.
Basic
Price: $10/month for each seat, and a discounted price of $8/seat for annual payment.
What it Offers: The Basic plan comes with unlimited free viewers, over 20 column types, kanban view and provides you with a basic activity log. But it is limited to 1 board per dashboard and has a 5GB storage limit.
When to Use: If you are getting started with project management and don’t need to handle multiple projects at once, you can settle for the Basic plan.
Standard
Price: $12/month per seat with a discounted price of $10/month per seat, if paid annually.
What it Offers: Along with all the Basic plan features, you get 5 boards per dashboard, 20GB storage limit, 250 integrations and automation, unlimited activity log, advanced search features, full API, and more. You also get Timeline, Calendar, and Map View and can integrate with third-party apps.
When to Use: If you need more options to visualize your work in different ways and collaborate externally, opt for the Standard plan.
Pro
Price: $20/month per seat, which is discounted to $16/month per seat for annual payment
What it Offers: Along with all the features of the Standard plan, you get new features such as formula columns, time tracking, chart view, custom tags, private boards, and more. You also get extended limits on other features, including 25,000 integrations and automation, 10 boards per dashboard, unlimited guests, and 100 GB of storage limit.
When to Use: You should choose the Pro plan if your team needs to manage complex workflows with more automation and integrations.
Enterprise
Price: Contact the Monday.com team for a price quote.
What it Offers: The Enterprise plan offers a higher API rate limit, priority support, audit log, session management, advanced account permission, 99.9% uptime SLA, and more. Your limits on features are extended even further, as you get 250,000 integrations and automation and 50 boards per dashboard.
When to Use: Although the Enterprise plan is likely to be very expensive, you might consider the additional security features it provides, along with more control and better support.
Where Monday.com Stands Out
Monday.com has so many features you might start to feel overloaded. Don't worry, here are some of the key differentiators will help you be a project management ninja.
Easy To Use Templates
Monday.com offers brilliant project templates that you can use to get started on the platform easily. You can choose from categories titled marketing, HR, design, and many more.
Third-Party Integrations
Monday.com offers a range of integrations, including Asana, Basecamp, Hubspot, Slack, and more. This makes it very easy to pull information from other platforms without having to leave your dashboard.
Clean User Interface
One of Monday.com’s most attractive features is that it is incredibly easy to navigate. It also features a visually appealing user interface for both web and mobile versions. You can access core features from the main dashboard and navigate between screens quickly.
Final Thoughts
While Monday.com is undoubtedly one of the most visually appealing project management tools in the market, it has just about every feature you want, even if it lacks a few advanced capabilities that competitors like Asana or Trello offer.
Still, you cannot ignore its excellent onboarding to help teams get started with their projects right away and its extensive range of third-party integrations. Overall, if you have a decent budget to spend on project management tools, Monday.com can be a very attractive option for you.
However, as we point out, Monday.com is missing inline file annotation. If you’re an Monday.com client, and you like the Markup Hero API integration, please contact customer support and ask them to integrate Markup Hero!
