Notion vs. Monday: I've Used Both and Here's What I Think
Project management tools are all the rage, and the most popular include Notion and Monday. Learn all about each of them to determine which one is best for you.
As someone who has been leading writing and creative teams for most of the last decade, I’ve tried my fair share of project management tools.
I understand what’s important from a manager standpoint, and an individual contributor.
I also know the features I particularly look for and depend on when utilizing a tool.
I’m excited to be comparing two top tools in this space, Notion and Monday.
In this article, I will review both at high and granular levels so you can determine which tool is best for your team.
During my evaluation, I considered…
Project Management Capabilities
Project Views
Note-Taking
Templates
Databases & Wikis
Collaboration
Ease of Use
Customization
Integrations
See my comparisons, pros and cons, favorite features, and which tool I believe is the best possible project management option below.
A quick breakdown of Notion vs. Monday
Feature
Notion
Monday
Project Management
Customizable with advanced task management features but lacks some advanced functionalities
Comprehensive with features like Gantt charts, resource management, dashboards, and project portfolios
Project Views
Customizable views like boards, calendars, and timelines but require setup
Pre-built views like Kanban boards, Gantt charts, calendars, and timelines that are easier to set up
Note-Taking
Robust capabilities with rich text documents, multimedia embeds, and wikis
Lacks built-in note-taking features; users can attach files and comments to tasks
Templates
Offers pre-built templates for various project types
Extensive template library for multiple industries and roles
Databases & Wikis
Strong database and wiki creation capabilities
None
Collaboration
Real-time collaboration on pages, databases, and wikis with commenting and version history
Task assignments, comments, file sharing, and real-time updates; integrates with enterprise tools like Outlook and Teams
Ease of Use
Steeper learning curve due to high customization
User-friendly with a clean and modern UI
Customization
Highly customizable workspaces, views, templates, and workflows
Limited customization; designed for a more standardized approach
Integrations
Integrates with popular tools like Slack, Zapier, and Google Calendar
Integrates with tools like Outlook, Teams, Zoom, and various CRM and marketing platforms
AI Functionality
AI features for generating action items, creating and editing copy, searching, answering questions, and auto-filling data
AI features for automating tasks, analyzing information, suggesting next steps, and building custom AI workflows
Pricing
Free plan
Plus: $12/user/month (billed annually)
Business: $18/user/month (billed annually)
Individual: Free (up to 2 users)
Basic: $12/user/month (billed annually)
Standard: $14/user/month (billed annually)
Pro: $24/user/month (billed annually)
Notion: The all-in-one productivity workspace
Notion was originally created as a knowledge management and note-taking application.
These features are still its best and most robust. However, Notion has expanded its project management capabilities more recently.
It’s also a highly customizable productivity tool that offers features for AI task management, note-taking, calendar organization, and collaboration.
It's designed as an all-in-one workspace and hopes to be a replacement tool for multiple applications.
Pros:
Centralized knowledge: Create custom wikis to organize and track information
Project templates: Choose from pre-built templates for different project types
Next-level documentation: Create beautiful docs for note-taking and presenting ideas
Filter views: Visualize project timelines and deadlines in Kanban and timeline views
Project management functionality: Connect your most important documents and resources to each of your individual tasks.
Downsize Your Tech-stack: Can replace multiple tools within your tool stack
Integrations: Connect with tools like Slack, Zapier, and more
Impressive AI-Functionality: AI features that can generate action items from meeting notes, create and edit copy, search and answer questions instantly, auto-fill data tables, and more
Cons:
Not ideal for beginners: Complex setup process
Still working through kinks: Blocks can be buggy at times
Challenges with Formatting: Less views, and formatting the interface can be challenging
Lacking some team functionality: No integrated chat feature for teams
Lacking some project management functionality: Not the best option for people strictly hoping to use the tool for project management
Pricing:
Free plan — this offers enough features for many users
Plus: $12/user/month billed annually
Business: $18/user/month billed annually
Monday: The dedicated project management platform
Monday is one of the most widely known project management tools.
The company has what they call a Work OS platform that allows you to choose from a variety of different types of workspaces.
It’s low code/no code, meaning, it’s super easy to customize to your company's needs.
It also offers a wide range of features for teams of all sizes.
It's designed to streamline project planning, task management, and collaboration.
Pros:
Activity dashboard: Choose from 30+ widgets to access a high-level view of project progress and updates
Templates: An In-depth template library for multiple industries and roles
Detailed views: Visualize project timelines and dependencies utilizing views like Gantt, Kanban, dashboard, table, and more
Custom workflows: Create workflows for any area of your business with easy no-code tools
Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and workflows with over 200 pre-built automations
Integrations: Connect with tools like Gmail, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, and more
Impressive AI-Functionality: Powerful AI additions that help you generate tasks, compose and rephrase emails, summarize complex tasks, build your own AI workflows, and more.
Cons:
Technical setup required: While more user-friendly than Notion, Monday can still be complex to set up
Technical overwhelm: While automation is a huge benefit of Monday, it can be overwhelming at first
Less note-taking abilities: Having the documentation element of Notion built into its system is a huge plus, and something Monday hasn’t focused on
Monday's project management capabilities are far more in-depth than Notion's
Notion's approach to project management is extremely flexible and customizable, allowing users to create their own project views and workflows.
However, it lacks some of the advanced project management features found in dedicated tools like Monday.
Monday excels in this area with features like Gantt charts, resource management, dashboards, and project portfolios.
It provides a more structured and comprehensive approach to project management, making it a better choice for teams that require advanced project planning and tracking capabilities.
Winner: Monday
Monday's comprehensive project views are one of its most praised features.
Both Notion and Monday offer a variety of project views, but they differ in their approach and level of customization.
Notion allows users to create custom views using its building blocks, such as boards, calendars, and timelines.
This level of customization can be powerful, but it also requires more setup and maintenance.
Monday, on the other hand, provides a range of pre-built project views, including Kanban boards, Gantt charts, calendars, and timelines.
These views are more structured and require less customization, making them easier to set up and use for teams that prefer a more standardized approach.
Winner: Monday
Notion's note-taking capabilities are so good that it's worth using the product just for that
One of Notion's standout features is its robust note-taking capabilities.
Users can create rich text documents, embed multimedia content, and even build wikis within the platform.
This makes Notion an excellent choice for teams that need to collaborate on documentation, knowledge bases, or any other content-heavy projects.
Monday, on the other hand, is primarily focused on project management and lacks built-in note-taking features.
While users can attach files and comments to tasks, there is no dedicated note-taking or documentation workspace within the platform.
Winner: Notion
Notion's new calendar tool is another step toward total tool takeover
The recently released Notion Calendar app is turning heads with its standout capabilities.
The ultimate benefit of course is the ability to view Notion databases as calendar timelines.
Now, instead of having your to-do’s, knowledge base, and meeting notes in your project management tool, and your time blocking, scheduling, and appointments in your calendar—you can access them all in one place.
Currently, Monday does not have a specific calendar feature, though, of course, it does offer calendar views of upcoming projects.
It also integrates with both Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar so your meetings and tasks can be viewed in one place.
Because of Notion’s fully integrated calendar application, it edges out Monday in this category.
Winner: Notion
While Notion wins in this category, if you want a fully integrated AI calendar that isn't just another place to hold your meetings, consider Motion.
Motion helps you prioritize and shift tasks as your schedule changes. This gives you a single place to view all your events and tasks across different parts of your life, helping you manage your time more effectively and avoid falling behind.
Monday's collaboration features are ideal for large teams
Collaboration is a crucial aspect of any project management tool, and both Notion and Monday excel in this area.
Notion allows multiple users to collaborate on pages, databases, and wikis in real-time.
It also offers features like commenting, mentions, and version history to facilitate effective collaboration.
Similarly, Monday provides a range of collaboration features, including task assignments, comments, file sharing, and real-time updates.
Teams can easily collaborate on projects, tasks, and boards within the platform.
Because of its stronger features for tracking projects, and integrations with more enterprise-friendly products like Outlook and Teams, Monday slightly edges out over Notion in this area.
Winner: Monday
Notion is known for its ability to help users create highly customized workspaces
Customization is one of Notion's standout features.
The platform allows users to create custom views, templates, and workflows using its building blocks.
This level of customization can be incredibly powerful for teams with unique needs or workflows.
Monday, while offering some customization options, is more limited in this regard.
Users can customize views, fields, and automations to a certain extent, but the platform is ultimately designed to provide a more standardized and structured approach to project management.
Winner: Notion
Notion's high customizability can make the product a bit too complex
One of the strengths of Monday is its intuitive and user-friendly interface.
The platform is designed with a clean and modern UI, making it easy for users to navigate and understand its various features.
Notion, on the other hand, can have a steeper learning curve due to its highly customizable nature.
While this flexibility can be powerful, it also means that users may need to spend more time setting up and configuring the platform to suit their specific needs.
Winner: Monday
Monday integrates with even the most secure products
Integrations are crucial for any project management tool, as they allow teams to seamlessly connect with other tools and services they use daily.
Notion offers integrations with popular tools like Slack, Zapier, Google Calendar, and more, allowing users to automate workflows and streamline their processes.
Similarly, Monday integrates with a range of tools, including Outlook, Teams, Zoom, and various CRM and marketing platforms.
This allows teams to access and manage their projects from within the tools they already use.
Because Notion lacks that crucial Teams and Outlook integration, Monday again wins this category.
Winner: Monday
Both Notion's and Monday's AI features are best in class.
Both Notion and Monday have been really expanding their AI functionality.
They’re uniquely different, but still, incredibly useful additions to their tool stack.
Notion's AI is like a super-powered research assistant that lives inside your workspace.
It can answer your questions directly inside your pages, like “What is the mobile team working on this week?”
It can even help you with your writing by suggesting rewrites, recapping meeting notes with action items, and generating creative content.
Monday’s AI, on the other hand, is more like a data whiz.
It can automate repetitive tasks, analyze information from your projects, and suggest next steps.
So if you're tired of manually crunching numbers or sorting through endless data points, the AI can be a real-time-saver.
Finally, Monday also offers users the ability to build their own AI workflow so they can create a version that works best for them.
Winner: Tie
Notion vs. Monday: What Reddit users are saying
I didn’t want to share only my opinion in this article, so I went to the Reddit archives and searched for feedback from users of both products.
Below, you’ll see feedback from users that favor each product, for different reasons.
“I have been working with Notion, Monday, ClickUp, Asana, Airtable, and Trello for the past years (different clients and projects), and - at least from my experience - Notion proved to be the most flexible, easy to use, and powerful. I feel it is almost limitless. Whatever I decided to do with it, it turned out to have a way to do it. There was a learning curve in the beginning, but now I love Notion.”—Boril
“I run a manufacturing company, we do about 30-40 jobs a week. I used Trello for a couple years to try and track everything but it was just too cluttered and didn’t work how I would like it too. We switched to Monday when it was still called DaPulse. I absolutely love it, the visibility, and my team's integration. I can get a call anywhere in the world and know the exact status of whatever job a customer may be inquiring about. This last week, I spent about 60+ hours setting up automations. Excited to see it work on Monday (pun intended:-). With it, I’m adding multiple tablets to the workflow. Depending on what status change one of our team members initiates, the job can automatically move, start and stop time tracking, send a text to my managers letting them know that the job is “stuck”, and so much more. For what I get from Monday, the $$ is plenty great. Probably one of the best changes my company has ever had.” — Alex
“I use Monday to track projects and allow my clients to see into everything we are doing. I actually really like it. You can add clients as a guest to the board and they can comment and update statuses which is nice. I also use the timeline/gantt feature quite a bit to keep track of progress. I find it easy to use and visually clean. I like the design.” —Josh
“I am using Notion for several of my digital transformation projects. I have successfully delivered projects where I was the only one using it and where my team was also using it. Notion can be used in a real and complex environment, but it requires some effort to link all databases and information in a useful way. Based on my experience, I found it easier to use Notion with startups, small, and some medium-sized companies. However, in larger companies, it can be more complex to get approval for Notion since these companies typically already use Azure or Jira. ” —Arthur
The Final verdict
Ultimately, Monday wins out over Notion in this breakdown!
I still use Notion with my team as a note-taker, document creator, and knowledge management hub, but for project management-specific tasks, I prefer a different tool (more on that soon!)
Something of course to note here is that if your team is on a tight budget, Monday might not be the best solution for you.
There's a third option you should consider
Notion and Monday offer great features to help teams stay organized and productive.
But ultimately, I chose a different tool, Motion, over both options after testing them out.
Motion is a robust AI-powered productivity tool designed for individuals and teams with packed schedules.
By seamlessly integrating calendar management, project timelines, and task lists, Motion helps users streamline their daily activities and improve overall efficiency.
Below, I’ll break down many of the specifics we discussed in terms of Notion and Monday in this article, and showcase how Motion specifically measures up in those areas.
Motion for project management
Regarding project management, Motion is an excellent tool for teams and individuals alike.
With Motion you can assign work to your teammates or yourself, add details with notes and a priority level, and also categorize it based on things like departments or task type—and then Motion will automatically schedule it directly to your or their calendar during a time that works best for everyone.
This feature creates beautiful views for users to access and accurately understand individual capacity levels, and team productivity.
Additionally, most project management tools that I have used in the past have not been able to fully grasp my actual capacity.
While I could plan out projects deeply, with due dates, and collaborators, I couldn't account for the time I was in meetings, at lunch, at the doctor's, etc.
This is where their calendar features really shine (more on that, below!)
Motion for calendar organization
I really appreciate the fact that Motion has such deep project management abilities AND integrates within my calendar.
So again, my actual day-to-day meetings, doctor's appointments, etc, were actually accounted for in my capacity planning.
Motion's seamless calendar integration meant no more wrestling with scheduling tasks— after identifying timelines and priority levels — Motion did it automatically for me, factoring in my real-time availability.
The tool intelligently juggles my schedule to make sure it gets done, eliminating the mental strain of constant day-to-day planning.
Motion also offers a calendar scheduling tool, so you can share your link, and encourage others to book an appointment with you at the most ideal time.
Motion’s AI functionality
Motion’s AI Functionality comes through in some of the ways we’ve already discussed—its ability to be your very own personal assistant.
It automatically schedules your tasks into available slots on your calendar.
This dynamic auto-scheduling has been huge for my productivity!
I spend way less time juggling my calendar and to-do list.
Motion handles all that for me, freeing up my time and mental energy to actually get work done.
With Motion, my daily schedule just flows.
And if I miss a task or something urgent comes up, Motion will automatically reschedule my day for me based on my priorities and availability.
Try Motion today
If you want a tool that will truly revolutionize how you work, I can't recommend Motion enough.
The auto-scheduling features have to be experienced to be believed.
Why not give the free trial a shot?
You might just ditch your old productivity tools for good like I did.
Alli is Content Writer and Strategist who has worked in SaaS since 2017. She’s worked with brands like BombBomb, Animalz, SupportLogic, and Copy.ai. Alli lives in Colorado with her husband, daughter, and two dogs.
Notion
Monday
