monday.com or Asana: which should you choose?

US pricing, US dollars, annual billing, before sales tax. Compare like for like — Asana Starter at $10.99 per user a month against monday.com Standard at $12 a seat — and 20 people costs $2,637.60 a year on Asana and $2,880 on monday.com. The gap is $242.40, about one month of the monday.com subscription. Price is not what decides this one. What decides it is how many seats you are billed for at your headcount, and whether the cheapest paid plan you can live with includes automations, integrations and a timeline.

Both list prices are the annual rate, and both are before tax

Every figure on this page is what the plan costs when you commit to a year. Month to month, the same plan costs more. Asana Starter is $10.99 per user a month billed annually and $13.49 billed monthly, which is 23% more. monday.com states that the yearly option "includes an 18% discount over monthly billing", but we could not find a monthly per-seat price stated on its pricing page; working back from that 18%, Standard comes to $12 ÷ 0.82 = about $14.60 a seat. Check the amount on the sign-up screen.

Neither price includes sales tax. monday.com writes that prices do not include tax and that the price is determined by the user’s billing country. Asana writes that it applies state and local sales tax based on your billing address. Neither states a rate and we do not calculate one: in the US the rate, and whether the service is taxed at all, follows the address you bill to. Budget from the figure on the checkout screen rather than the one on the pricing page.

Neither sells seats one at a time

A seat is the right for 1 person to log in to the admin console, and neither vendor sells seats 1 at a time. monday.com starts at a minimum of 3 seats and then ascends in multiples of 5; the vendor’s own examples are that a team of 4 should choose the 5-seat option and a team of 6 the 10-seat plan. Asana sells 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-seat plans, then moves in increments of 5 up to 30 users, 10 up to 100, 25 up to 500 and 50 above 500. So 4 seats exist on Asana and not on monday.com, and 9 seats exist on neither.

Both are free for up to 2 people, and the two free plans are not the same. monday.com Free stops at 3 boards and 200 items, with another 100 items for every person you invite, while Asana Personal has unlimited tasks and projects. We could not find it stated on either vendor’s own pages what happens to your data when you move from a paid plan back to free.

Seats billed against actual headcount (paid plans, monday.com / Asana)

Figures are given as monday.com / Asana. The chart stops at 20 people because monday.com does not state its seat steps above 20 seats on its own pages; Asana’s published steps are in the second table below. Sources: support.monday.com (a minimum of 3 seats, then multiples of 5), asana.com/pricing and help.asana.com (2, 3, 4 and 5 seats, then 5 up to 30 users, 10 up to 100, 25 up to 500, 50 above 500). Checked August 2026 (rechecked 6 September 2026).

At 3, 4, 6, 11 and 20 people, what leaves the account?

SaaS COMPASS model — the seat counts below are what each vendor’s published steps imply for that headcount, not a quote either vendor gave us. The per-seat prices are the vendors’ own; the yearly totals are our arithmetic on top of them, on annual billing and before sales tax.

People actually using it	Seats billed (monday / Asana)	monday.com Basic, $9 a seat, paid upfront for the year	monday.com Standard, $12 a seat, paid upfront for the year	Asana Starter, $10.99 a user, paid upfront for the year	How to read this figure
3 people	3 seats / 3 seats	$324.00	$432.00	$395.64	Both bill exactly the seats you use. Like for like, Standard is $36.36 more than Starter for the year
4 people	5 seats / 4 seats	$540.00	$720.00	$527.52	Only monday.com bills a seat nobody uses, and the like-for-like gap widens to $192.48
6 people	10 seats / 10 seats	$1,080.00	$1,440.00	$1,318.80	Both bill 4 seats nobody uses. Per person that is $20.00 and $18.32 a month, 1.67 times the list price on both
11 people	15 seats / 15 seats	$1,620.00	$2,160.00	$1,978.20	4 unused seats again, on both
20 people	20 seats / 20 seats	$2,160.00	$2,880.00	$2,637.60	The seats are filled, and the like-for-like gap is $242.40 a year

Sources: https://asana.com/pricing / https://monday.com/pricing (checked August 2026, rechecked 6 September 2026). US dollars, annual billing, before sales tax. The formula is the monthly price for 1 seat × seats billed × 12 months.

Read the middle of the table rather than the ends. At 6 people the 4 seats nobody uses add $527.52 to the Asana bill and $576.00 to the monday.com Standard bill, while the whole difference between the two vendors at that headcount is $121.20. The seat step costs more than the choice of vendor does.

Above 20 people, Asana publishes its steps and monday.com does not

SaaS COMPASS model — Asana’s steps below are read off its own pricing page and help center article. monday.com’s step above 20 seats is not stated on its own pages: one support article lists "3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 seats etc." and another says plans ascend in multiples of 5, so we show both bounds instead of choosing one.

People actually using it	Asana seats billed	Asana Starter a year	monday.com seats billed	monday.com Standard a year
21 to 25 people	25 seats	$3,297.00	25 or 30 seats (not stated)	$3,600.00 or $4,320.00
26 to 30 people	30 seats	$3,956.40	30 seats	$4,320.00
31 to 40 people	40 seats	$5,275.20	Not stated on the vendor’s own pages	—

Between 21 and 25 people that single unknown is worth more than the per-seat difference is. If monday.com bills 25 seats, Standard costs $303.00 more a year than Asana Starter; if it bills 30, $1,023.00 more. Both are larger than the $242.40 that separates the two at 20 seats, so at that headcount the seat count you are offered decides the bill.

Above 30 people the finer steps change sides. Asana moves in 10s from 30 to 100, so a team of 31 is billed 40 seats, $5,275.20 a year for 9 seats nobody uses. If monday.com’s "multiples of 5" wording holds at that size, 31 people would be 35 seats and $5,040.00 on Standard. We could not confirm on the vendor’s own pages that it does hold.

What can you not do on the cheapest paid plan?

An automation rule is a mechanism that runs by itself once you set a condition and an action (for example, emailing the manager on completion); an integration exchanges data automatically with Gmail or Slack; a timeline is a view that lays out work periods as horizontal bars.

Feature	monday.com Basic (annual billing, $9 a seat, before tax)	Asana Starter (annual billing, $10.99 a user, before tax)
Automation rules	Not on Basic; first appears on Standard, with 250 actions a month	Unlimited automations
Third-party integrations	Not on Basic; first appears on Standard, with 250 actions a month	Yes, over 100 free integrations, on the free plan as well
Timeline and Gantt chart	No; first appears on Standard	Yes
Calendar view	No; first appears on Standard	Yes, on the free plan as well

Sources: https://monday.com/pricing / https://support.monday.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005320209-Available-plan-types-on-Work-Management / https://asana.com/pricing (checked August 2026, rechecked 6 September 2026). Amounts are the monthly price for 1 seat on annual billing, before tax.

This is where the money is. At 20 people monday.com Basic is $2,160.00 a year against Asana Starter’s $2,637.60, so the cheaper line saves $477.60 — twice the $242.40 that separates the two vendors like for like. Need any of the 4 features above and Basic does not carry them: monday.com moves you to Standard at $2,880.00, and the saving becomes a $242.40 premium. The $9 headline and the $10.99 headline are not two prices for the same thing.

Who should not choose these?

monday.com is a poor fit for a team of exactly 4 people, who buy 5 seats, and for 1 or 2 people who want a paid contract, who buy 3. It is also a poor fit for a team of 21 to 25 that has to commit before it sees the seat count it will be billed for.

Asana is a poor fit for a team of 3 to 20 people that uses neither automations nor integrations nor timelines, because monday.com Basic is $477.60 less at 20 seats. It is also a poor fit for anyone who wants to design the fields and columns they track and run the thing like a ledger, and for anyone who needs portfolios and cannot stretch to Advanced at $24.99 a user.

So which should you choose?

SaaS COMPASS model — the split below is ours, not vendor guidance. It assumes annual billing, that you are billed the seats each vendor’s published steps imply, and that what you need from the cheapest paid tier is automations, integrations or a timeline. Drop that last assumption and monday.com Basic changes several of these answers.

Up to 2 people — Both are free. Decide once you reach monday.com Free’s 3 boards and 200 items.
1 or 2 people who need paid features — Asana Starter. You can buy 2 seats, $263.76 a year; monday.com bills 3.
Exactly 4 people — Asana Starter, $527.52. monday.com bills 5 seats, and the like-for-like gap is $192.48.
3 to 20 people who need none of automations, integrations or a timeline — monday.com Basic. $324.00 a year for 3 seats and $2,160.00 for 20, the cheapest paid line in this article.
3 to 20 people who need any of them — Asana Starter or monday.com Standard, $242.40 apart at 20 seats. Decide on the product: Asana if 1 task has to sit in several projects, monday.com if you want to design the columns yourself.
21 to 25 people — Asana bills 25 seats, $3,297.00. Ask monday.com for the seat count before you commit; 30 seats would be $4,320.00 on Standard.
26 people and above — Asana’s steps are published to 500 users. monday.com’s are not stated above 20 seats, so check the seat count on the sign-up screen or in writing.
Whatever you choose — Compare on annual billing. Monthly costs Asana 23% more, and monday.com’s own 18% annual discount goes away. Then read the tax line at checkout; neither list price includes it.

Sources (checked August 2026, prices and seat steps rechecked 6 September 2026)

All amounts are US list prices in US dollars, quoted by both vendors as a monthly price for 1 seat on annual billing, so we multiply by 12 and by the seats each vendor’s published steps imply for that headcount. Nothing on this page includes sales tax.

Asana US pricing (Personal $0 for up to 2 users; Starter $10.99 a user on annual billing and $13.49 monthly; Advanced $24.99 and $30.49; unlimited automations, timeline and Gantt, over 100 free integrations; the seat steps; state and local sales tax applied on the billing address): https://asana.com/pricing
Asana seat increments (2-, 3-, 4- and 5-seat plans, then 5 up to 30 users, 10 up to 100, 25 up to 500 and 50 above 500): https://help.asana.com/s/article/subscription-size-and-users
Asana multi-homing, 1 task in several projects (available from Personal): https://help.asana.com/s/article/how-to-multi-home-tasks
monday.com pricing (Basic $9 / Standard $12 / Pro $19 a seat a month on annual billing; "Prices do not include tax. The price is determined by the user’s billing country."; Standard’s 250 automation actions a month; no monthly per-seat price stated): https://monday.com/pricing
monday.com minimum seats and steps ("Our pricing plans start at a minimum of 3 seats, and then ascend in multiples of 5."), the 5-seat option for a team of 4 and the 10-seat plan for a team of 6, and the 18% discount for yearly billing: https://support.monday.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405633151634-Plans-and-pricing-for-monday-com
monday.com selectable seat counts ("3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 seats etc.") and the minimum team size of 3 seats: https://support.monday.com/hc/en-us/articles/16274345773842-Pricing-model-adjustment-January-2024
monday.com features by plan (automations and integrations from Standard, 250 actions each a month; timeline, Gantt and calendar from Standard; 1 board per dashboard on Free and Basic): https://support.monday.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005320209-Available-plan-types-on-Work-Management
monday.com free plan (2 seats, 3 boards, 200 items and 100 more for every person invited): https://support.monday.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010487220-Understanding-the-Free-Plan

The editor does not use these products. Terms change, so check each vendor’s own pages before signing.

Buying from Japan? See the Japanese edition for yen pricing, the Asana yen price list and Japanese consumption tax →

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What changed on this page

scope change6 September 2026 The English edition — currency and tax assumptions
yen prices, Japanese consumption tax and a card issuer’s foreign transaction fee → US published prices in US dollars; sales tax is described as determined by the billing address and no rate is assumed
Buying from Japan is covered in the Japanese edition, which keeps the yen figures.
Where: Processing rates do not decide the Shopify plan until monthly volume passes $25,000, Is the free trial actually free, No two vendors mean the same thing by “seat”, Budgeting from the list price times twelve leaves you short, On which plan does support stop being a help article?, Which country will your customer data sit in?, How many months until that SaaS pays for itself?

Every recorded change to this site is in the change log.