project management tool · head to head
ClickUp vs monday.com
Comparison Summary
ClickUp scored 7.4 and monday.com scored 6.5 on our project management tool test script.
ClickUp and monday.com both did most of our project-management script well, but on very different plans. ClickUp gave us list, board, calendar and Gantt views, priorities, dependencies, a recurring task and a CSV import on its Free Forever plan. monday.com matched or beat that, with the best importer and the most accurate AI we have tested, but almost all of it ran on the Pro trial a new account starts with.
monday's free plan is two seats and three boards, with table and Kanban views only and no automations, dependencies or AI. ClickUp's free plan is far more generous, though its app is heavier, at 1.7 to 2.2 GB of memory against monday's 1.1 to 1.3 GB.
Choose ClickUp if you want the most on a free plan. Choose monday.com if your team will pay for a polished tool with excellent imports, automations and AI.
Key differences
ClickUp
monday.com - Our 8 scripted tasks
- ClickUp:6 passed, 2 partial
- monday.com:3 passed, 5 partial
- Free plan size
- ClickUp:Unlimited members
- monday.com:2 seats, 3 boards
- Views on the free plan
- ClickUp:List, board, calendar and Gantt
- monday.com:Table and Kanban
- Dependencies
- ClickUp:Free
- monday.com:Pro plan; strict mode worked
- CSV import
- ClickUp:200 and 500 rows with all fields
- monday.com:200 and 500 rows in 10–20 s; check column types
- Automation
- ClickUp:Free, 100 actions a month
- monday.com:Standard and up; fired in about 1.5 s
- AI
- ClickUp:Chat trial: summary, subtasks, overdue
- monday.com:Sidekick, all answers right; paid plans
- Memory and cold start
- ClickUp:1.7–2.2 GB; about 14 s
- monday.com:1.1–1.3 GB; about 9 s
- Paid plans from
- ClickUp:$9 per user a month, billed yearly
- monday.com:€9 per seat a month, billed yearly
- Left after uninstalling
- ClickUp:About 275 MB and a broken startup entry
- monday.com:About 92 MB updater cache
Editor's Verdict
Choose ClickUp if…
Best for: Small teams that want lists, boards, Gantt charts, automations and AI in one free workspace and do not mind a busy, heavy app.
- Every view we needed is free: list, board, calendar and Gantt, with no upgrade prompt
- Automation, dependency and recurring task all worked on the free plan
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one task per line
Choose monday.com if…
Best for: Teams ready to pay for a polished, flexible work-management tool with strong imports, automations and AI.
- Excellent CSV/Excel import: 200 rows in about 10 s and 500 in about 20 s, with statuses, dates and priorities
- Strict dependencies that move dependent tasks when a date changes
- Automations fired in about a second and a half
Head to Head
Task by task
The same prompts, pasted word for word into each app on a clean Windows 11 PC. On the 8 tasks both apps were graded on, ClickUp completed 6 and monday.com completed 3.
| Task | ClickUp | monday.com |
|---|---|---|
| P1 · Build a project | Pass≈ 200 actions | Pass≈ 15 min |
| P2 · Views | Pass≈ 2 min | Partial≈ 4 min |
| P3 · Rules | Pass≈ 7 min | Partial≈ 7 min |
| P4 · 200-row import | Partial≈ 12 min | Pass≈ 3 min |
| P5 · Scale | Pass< 2 min import | Pass≈ 2 min |
| P6 · Permissions | Pass≈ 5 min | Partial≈ 3 min |
| P7 · AI | Pass≈ 1–1.5 min each | Partial≈ 3 min |
| P8 · Leave | Partial≈ 7 min | Partial≈ 5 min |
ClickUp ran on its Free Forever plan; a new monday.com account starts on a 14-day Pro trial, and we noted where monday's results depend on it.
Measured on the same PC
| Measurement | ClickUp | monday.com |
|---|---|---|
| On disk | 643 MB | 330 MB |
| Starts with Windows | Yes, by default | No |
| 40-task project | ≈ 200 actions | ≈ 15 min |
| Views on the free plan | 4 / 4 | 2 / 4 |
| 200-row CSV import | 200 / 200 | 200 / 200 |
| 500-row CSV import | < 2 min | 500 / 500 |
| Cold start | ≈ 14 s | ≈ 9 s |
| Memory | 1.7 – 2.2 GB | 1.1 – 1.3 GB |
| Left after uninstall | ≈ 275 MB | ≈ 92 MB |
Pros and cons
ClickUp
+ What works
- Every view we needed is free: list, board, calendar and Gantt, with no upgrade prompt
- Automation, dependency and recurring task all worked on the free plan
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one task per line
- 500-row CSV import in under two minutes, and the 500-task board opened in under a second
- Brain² summarised our project accurately, answered “what is overdue?” correctly and asked before adding subtasks
- Full CSV export in under a minute: all 771 tasks, with comments and subtasks
- Removing someone's access took effect immediately
− What falls short
- Heavy: about 14 seconds from launch to a usable list and 1.7–2.2 GB of memory
- The CSV import matched none of our seven columns automatically and needed status values mapped by hand
- The import offers to invite everyone whose email is in the file
- Starts with Windows by default and leaves about 275 MB and a broken startup entry after uninstalling
- Free AI chat is a one-off trial that does not reset
- The export drops dependencies and recurrence settings
- Busy setup: nine onboarding screens, a phone-number request, an invite nudge and an AI pop-up for every new list
monday.com
+ What works
- Excellent CSV/Excel import: 200 rows in about 10 s and 500 in about 20 s, with statuses, dates and priorities
- Strict dependencies that move dependent tasks when a date changes
- Automations fired in about a second and a half
- Sidekick AI summarised the board, answered “what is overdue?” correctly and created real subtasks
- Instant Excel export with subitems and dependencies, plus a full account export
- Clear roles, including free view-only Viewers
− What falls short
- Free plan: 2 seats, 3 boards, no automations, no calendar or Gantt, no AI
- A new account silently starts a 14-day Pro trial
- Calendar and Gantt views showed nothing until we refreshed the app
- The import's default column types mangled our descriptions and kept tags as one label
- The installer is signed with a code-signing certificate that expired in August 2025
- Heavier than most: about 1.1–1.3 GB of memory and a 9-second cold start
Privacy and security
What we saw on our own test PC. Each review also lists what the vendor states about data handling, training and certifications.
ClickUp
Starts with Windows
The installer adds ClickUp to Windows startup without asking. It adds no services or scheduled tasks and only listens on the PC itself.
Contacts are pushed, not required
Setup asks for a phone number for promotional calls and messages, and the CSV import pre-fills the file's email addresses as invitations. Both can be skipped.
Full deletion is opt-in
Deleting a workspace keeps it recoverable unless you tick a separate box to delete it and its third-party data permanently.
Left after uninstalling
A 133 MB profile folder, a 143 MB updater cache, the clickup:// link handler and a startup entry pointing at the removed program.
monday.com
Expired signing certificate
The installer is signed by monday.com Ltd with a certificate that expired in August 2025, so Windows reports the signature as not valid.
No background services
The app added no startup entry, services or listening ports.
Admin by default in sign-up
The sign-up wizard's invite step sets new members to Admin and allows automatic sign-ups from your domain unless you change it.
EU data storage
Our account's admin page showed data stored in the European Union.
Features & Pricing
| ClickUp | monday.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Web | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | ✓ | — |
| iOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paid from | $9/mo | $9/mo |
ClickUp plans
- Free Forever$0
- Core$9/user/mo
- Business$17/user/mo
- EnterpriseCustom
From ClickUp's pricing page, checked Oct 29, 2026.
monday.com plans
- Free€0
- Basic€9/seat/mo
- Standard€12/seat/mo
- Pro€19/seat/mo
- EnterpriseCustom
From monday.com's pricing page, checked Oct 30, 2026.
Cost for your team
- ClickUp$540per year
- monday.com$540per year
Cheapest paid plan × seats × 12, at list price. Annual discounts and volume deals not included. ClickUp and monday.com also have a free plan.
Who makes them
- Company
- ClickUp:ClickUp (Mango Technologies, Inc.)
- monday.com:monday.com Ltd.
- Headquarters
- ClickUp:San Diego, California, USA
- monday.com:Tel Aviv, Israel
- Founded
- ClickUp:2017
- monday.com:2012
- Funding
- ClickUp:$400 million Series C in October 2021 at a reported $4 billion valuation.
- monday.com:Public on Nasdaq (MNDY) since 2021.
Timelines, official links and sources are in each review: ClickUp · monday.com.
FAQ
Which is better, ClickUp or monday.com?
ClickUp scored higher in our tests because its free plan covers views, dependencies, automation and imports. monday.com was excellent on its Pro trial but keeps most of that behind paid plans.
Which has the better free plan?
ClickUp. monday's free plan is limited to two seats and three boards, with no automations, calendar, Gantt or AI.
Which imports a spreadsheet better?
Both imported our 200 and 500 rows. monday was faster and offers more import sources, but its default column types split our descriptions until we changed them.
Read the full reviews
This page compares the two side by side. Each full review has the complete test log, every screenshot, the scoring notes, pricing, security and company details.
ClickUp reviewRecommended 7.4 ClickUp passed every step of our project-management test on the free plan: all the views, a working automation, dependencies, recurring tasks, a 500-row import and an AI that got the facts right and asked before changing anything. It is heavy, though: the Windows app needs about 14 seconds and up to 2 GB of memory, and the import and setup make you do more by hand than they should. Read the full review → monday.com reviewSituational 6.5 monday.com did nearly everything in our script well: a clean 200- and 500-row import, working dependencies and automations, and the most accurate AI assistant in this category so far. But almost all of it ran on the automatic Pro trial. The free plan is two seats and three boards with no automations, no calendar or Gantt and no AI, so most teams will be paying. Read the full review → Project Management Alternatives
Notion Situational Individuals and small teams who want tasks living next to their docs and wiki, and who are happy to build their own setup 6.9 Read reviewReview 
Airtable Situational Teams who want a flexible database behind their projects, with automations and reliable CSV in and out 6.8 Read reviewReview 
Asana Situational Teams ready to pay for Starter or Advanced who want a polished, fast-to-learn project tool with strong import and export 6.7 Read reviewReview 
