As creative freelancers with busy minds and even busier schedules we all know how a great project management tool can be a lifesaver. If you haven’t yet jumped on the project management tool software wagon then get ready for your mind to be blown.

Here at Wishu we have trialled both Asana and Monday – arguably the two most popular project management softwares. We’ve done the hard work for you so you can read the following and make an educated decision on which platform may best serve your business. 

The basics:

Monday is a space where teams can collectively track tasks, collaborate over every step of the project, visualise progress through stats, scheduling options, performance options, and store everything on a single platform. In addition, the platform has its Project Management suite that allows the users to integrate every project management step in a single space.

Asana provides a one-stop solution for task management, collaborations, portfolio management, and workflow management. You can see your work’s progress in the form of calendars, lists, Gantt charts, and Kanban Boards. In addition, you can collaborate with your team by using the communication tools that integrate into Asana.

User interface

Asana has a convenient user interface, but a beginner may get stuck with the number of functionalities it offers.

Monday is a colourful and vibrant user interface with a single view option where you can organise many things on a single view. However, the same problem of too many functionalities complicates usage for a new user.

Team management 

Asana allows up to 15 members to collaborate.  You can use integration to enable flawless communication between the team.

You can use integration to enable flawless communication between the team on Monday but you cannot add more than two team members in the free version.

Integrations

Asana proposes more than 150 integrations whereas Monday offers more than 50. 

Workflow management

You can manage workflow in Asana through different ‘view’ categories. The views include lists, boards, and timelines. All views showcase your workflow differently – so it feels tailored to your preference. You can drag and drop tasks to the view you have chosen to see the workflow.

Monday.com also has an almost similar way of managing workflow. However, it is easier to switch between different visual project workflow units as compared to Asana. Using Monday.com, you can manage the workflow through Kanban boards, charts, and timelines.

Task management 

Task management in Asana involves creating tasks, setting task goals such as deadlines, assigning the tasks to the team members, and keeping track of the tasks through the lists, boards, and timeline view. You can see the to-be-completed-soon tasks in the ‘My task’ tab on the home page. You can also click on any task to view all the task details and attach documents for collaboration.

Monday.com has almost the same way of managing tasks, but here you call the tasks pulses. You can create pulses, assign them to the team members, and create dependencies in the tasks. You can also track the task progress by checking the task overview in your task manager. The task statuses keep the team updated on the task’s completion rate. The software also allows you to manage daily to-do lists and weekly team tasks. The team lead can design tasks and assign them to the team members. The action boards give an overview of the status of each task making task management convenient for the team members.

Portfolio management

You can see the portfolio of the ongoing projects by zooming out of the day-to-day tasks at Asana. The portfolio shows the status of each project, so you don’t miss any project due to juggling between many projects simultaneously.

Monday, unlike Asana, doesn’t have a proper portfolio management section. However, Monday has a feature named ‘Groups’ that you can use to group any sub-benchmark of your project. Using the group tool, you can make a portfolio tab by integrating all your current projects in one place. Unlike Asana, the groups do not show you the complete progress status of the projects. However, you can still keep tabs on the projects by making a group (at least you can avoid forgetting a project completely).

Security

Digital security is a concern for all enterprise-based solution providers. However, in Asana and Monday, both companies have secured their clients through reputable security compliances. 

Asana has compliance with SOC 2  and ISO/IEC 27001:2013. The company doesn’t give the right to the enterprises to operate the software on their servers. They have kept it cloud-based and have firewalls in place to avoid any security breach for their clients.

Monday.com keeps the customer’s data readily available by working with Amazon Web Service (AWS). Besides that, Monday also uses the security practices of the Google Cloud Platform. Moreover, the company has complied with ISO 27001, ISO 27018.

At the end of the day, all software programs have pros and cons, and it is essential to remember that there’s no perfect software. It’s also good to remember that there are other options. At Wishu, we also like Trello for example. In terms of which platform works best for you and your type of freelance work, the best thing to do would be to test out both platforms for a couple of weeks to a month – both Asana and Monday have plans that are easy to cancel. Measure the outcomes and weigh up which brings you the best and most organised way of working.