ClickUp vs Monday.com pricing breakdown
Both tools charge per user, but the pricing models work differently. ClickUp has no seat minimum and starts lower. Monday.com requires a 3-seat minimum on all paid plans and adds seats in blocks of 5 after the initial purchase.
ClickUp Pricing (2026)
- Free Forever: $0. Unlimited tasks but 60MB storage, 5 Spaces, 100 total feature uses (testing counts toward the limit).
- Unlimited: $7/user/month (annual) or $10/user/month (monthly). Adds time tracking, unlimited storage, Gantt charts, custom fields, and guest access.
- Business: $12/user/month (annual) or $19/user/month (monthly). Adds Google SSO, multi-step automations, mind maps, whiteboards, and workload management.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing. Adds white labeling, conditional form logic, HIPAA compliance, and custom roles.
Monday.com Pricing (2026)
- Free: $0. Up to 2 users, 3 boards. No automations, no integrations, no time tracking, no Gantt view.
- Basic: $9/seat/month (annual) or $12/seat/month (monthly). 3-seat minimum. Adds unlimited boards, 5GB storage, and a mobile app. No automations, no integrations.
- Standard: $12/seat/month (annual) or $14/seat/month (monthly). 3-seat minimum. Adds timeline and Gantt views, 250 automation actions per month, and 250 integration actions per month.
- Pro: $19/seat/month (annual) or $24/seat/month (monthly). 3-seat minimum. Adds time tracking, 25,000 automations/month, chart views, and formula columns.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing. Adds cross-board reporting, multi-level permissions, and HIPAA compliance.
What a solo freelancer actually pays
The per-user price doesn't reflect what solo users actually pay on Monday.com because of the 3-seat minimum. A solo freelancer comparing both tools would pay:
- ClickUp Unlimited: $7/month (annual) for one user with time tracking
- Monday.com Basic: $27/month (annual) for 3 seats, only using one. No time tracking, no automations.
- Monday.com Pro (with time tracking): $57/month (annual) for 3 seats. Solo freelancers pay for 2 empty seats just to track hours.
The real cost: supplementary tools
Since neither tool handles invoicing, proposals, contracts, or client portals, most freelancers add supplementary apps:
- Proposal tool: PandaDoc or Better Proposals ($19-49/month)
- Contract tool: DocuSign or HelloSign ($10-25/month)
- Invoicing: FreshBooks or QuickBooks ($17-55/month)
- Client portal: Copilot or a custom solution ($29-99/month)
A typical four-tool stack runs $75-230 per month on top of the project management subscription. All-in-one platforms like Plutio start at $19/month for one user with no feature gating: proposals, contracts, projects, time tracking, invoicing, and client portals in one subscription.
Which tool is better for your business type?
ClickUp and Monday.com both focus on project management, but the strengths differ depending on team size, work type, and budget.
Solo freelancers
ClickUp's per-user pricing with no seat minimum makes it cheaper for solo users. Unlimited at $7 per month includes time tracking. Monday.com's 3-seat minimum pushes the minimum cost to $27 per month on Basic with no time tracking, or $57 per month on Pro with time tracking. But neither tool helps solo freelancers send proposals, sign contracts, or invoice clients, so both require supplementary apps regardless of pricing.
Creative agencies (5-15 people)
Both tools handle task management for agencies. Monday.com's board view displays project status across teams, but there's no client portal for agency clients to track progress. ClickUp's 15+ views cover different project types, though the configuration overhead increases with each new view. But neither has a client portal where agency clients can log in to track progress, approve deliverables, or access files. Agencies end up building client-facing portals in separate tools or sending manual status updates by email.
Software development teams
ClickUp includes sprints, Git integrations, and a dedicated Dev product. Monday.com has monday Dev as a separate product for development teams. ClickUp reviewers on G2 note that the platform "was not built for software development, as everything is based on lists." Monday.com's Gantt dependencies require manual table editing rather than visual drag-and-drop, which slows sprint planning for larger backlogs.
Marketing teams and content managers
Monday.com's board format maps to content calendars and campaign tracking. Color-coded statuses indicate pipeline stages. ClickUp's calendar and table views handle content planning, plus built-in Docs reduce context-switching for writing teams. Both lack the client-facing handoff step: completed work still gets sent through email or file-sharing tools rather than a client portal.
Client-facing service businesses
Neither tool covers the full client-facing service workflow. The full path from lead to proposal to contract to project handoff to invoice to payment requires external tools for both platforms. Platforms like Plutio pick up where project management stops, covering proposals, contracts, invoicing, and client portals in the same system.
What both tools are missing
Both tools cover project management. Tasks, timelines, and team automations work in both. But once the work involves clients, billing, or handoff, most users find themselves opening four or five other apps to manage the business side.
No proposals or contracts
Neither tool has the ability to create proposals, send contracts, or collect e-signatures. ClickUp has a feature request for proposals and contracts dating back to January 2020 with 290+ votes, and the feature remains unbuilt. Monday.com has basic quotes in its separate CRM product, but quotes are not proposals with scope, terms, and acceptance workflows. Freelancers and agencies send proposals through PandaDoc, Better Proposals, or email, then manually track which proposals convert to projects.
No invoicing in the project management tool
ClickUp has no invoicing at all. The platform offers fillable invoice templates (essentially blank documents), but there's no way to generate invoices from tracked time, send payment links, or record received payments. Monday.com's invoicing lives in the separate CRM product at $12-28 per seat per month (additional). Even then, tracked time from the PM tool doesn't flow into CRM invoices automatically. Most users invoice through FreshBooks, QuickBooks, or Wave, then manually reconcile which projects have been billed.
No client portal
A branded client portal, where clients log in to see project progress, approve deliverables, download files, or pay invoices, exists in neither tool. ClickUp's guest access allows limited external visibility, but the result looks like a ClickUp workspace, not a branded portal. Monday.com's customer portal exists only in monday service (their support product) for ticket management, not project visibility. Platforms like Plutio include a white-labeled portal on a custom domain where clients see only the business brand.
Time tracking that doesn't connect to billing
ClickUp tracks time on Unlimited plans and tags hours as billable. Monday.com tracks time on Pro plans. But in both cases, tagged hours just sit there, waiting to be manually exported. The billable tag is decorative. Each client's hours take 15-30 minutes to export from CSV and import into an invoicing tool. Across 10 clients, that's 2.5-5 hours per month spent on data transfer that an integrated system handles automatically.
No scheduling or booking
Appointment scheduling and client booking are absent from both tools. Freelancers who take discovery calls or client meetings use Calendly, Acuity, or another booking tool alongside their project management. The booking data doesn't connect to the project, so converting a booked call into a proposal or project is a manual step.
What users do when neither tool is enough
When ClickUp or Monday.com can't handle the full client workflow alone, users take one of two paths: build a multi-tool stack and accept the manual handoffs, or switch to a platform designed for the complete client lifecycle.
The typical workaround stack
- ClickUp or Monday.com for project management ($7-57/month)
- PandaDoc or Better Proposals for proposals ($19-49/month)
- DocuSign or HelloSign for contracts ($10-25/month)
- FreshBooks or QuickBooks for invoicing ($17-55/month)
- Calendly or Acuity for scheduling ($0-16/month)
- Google Drive or Dropbox for file sharing ($0-15/month)
The total: five or six subscriptions totaling $53-220 per month, five or six logins to manage, and constant manual data transfer between each tool.
The hidden cost: time spent on handoffs
The subscription cost is the visible expense. The hidden cost is the workflow friction. When a client accepts a proposal in PandaDoc, someone has to manually create a project in ClickUp or Monday.com, set up time tracking categories, then export hours to QuickBooks when the invoice is due. Each handoff takes 5-15 minutes. Across 20 clients per year, that's 30+ hours annually spent on data transfer that an integrated system handles automatically.
The one-platform alternative
All-in-one platforms exist that handle proposals, contracts, project management, time tracking, and invoicing in a single system. The trade-off is learning a new interface versus maintaining the existing multi-tool setup. For teams deeply invested in ClickUp's custom views or Monday.com's board workflows, the migration feels like a lot of work. For teams drowning in tool-juggling, switching to one platform can recover 2-5 hours per week.
What one platform looks like in practice
If you're curious: Plutio is one platform that covers the complete workflow. Proposals auto-create projects with task templates when accepted. Time tracking happens at the task level and flows directly into invoices. Clients access a branded portal on a custom domain, and all of it runs inside one subscription.
Final verdict: ClickUp vs Monday.com
ClickUp and Monday.com both handle project management. Tasks, views, and automations work in both. The differences emerge in pricing, feature depth, and what happens when freelancers need more than task boards.
ClickUp trade-offs:
- 15+ view types mean more configuration than Monday.com's board-first approach, but the interface is complex and new users spend 2-3 days configuring before the first real project goes in
- Unlimited plan at $7 per user per month has time tracking, but tracked time has no path to invoicing because ClickUp has no invoicing feature
- No seat minimum makes ClickUp cheaper for solo users, but the free plan caps storage at 60MB and limits feature usage to 100 total uses
- ClickUp Brain (AI) costs $9-28 per user per month as an add-on, so a 5-person team with AI pays $105-200 per month total
- Performance degrades on larger workspaces, with G2 reviewers reporting 10-second load times and a Trustpilot rating of 3.3/5
The cost: No invoicing, no proposals, no contracts, no client portal. Freelancers need 3-4 additional tools to run client work.
Monday.com trade-offs:
- Color-coded board interface has fewer settings than ClickUp's nested hierarchy, but the 3-seat minimum on all paid plans means solo freelancers pay $27-57 per month for one user
- AI features are included in existing plans rather than sold as a per-user add-on, but the base per-seat pricing is already higher than ClickUp for individual users
- A separate CRM product adds lead tracking and basic invoicing, but CRM pricing is $12-28 per seat per month on top of the Work Management subscription
- Seats must be added in blocks of 5 after the initial 3, so a team of 4 pays for 8 seats
- Trustpilot rating is 2.7/5 with recurring complaints about billing traps, auto-renewal without notification, and charges exceeding $8,500 due to billing errors
The cost: Per-seat pricing with a 3-seat minimum and block purchasing. Time tracking gated behind Pro. No proposals, no contracts, no client portal in the PM tool.
Consider switching to one platform if:
- The current workflow spans four or more tools: project management in one, proposals in another, time tracking in a third, and invoicing in a fourth
- Manual data transfer between apps is eating 2-5 hours per week
- Clients need a branded portal to check progress, approve work, and pay invoices without emailing for updates
- Time tracking needs to connect directly to invoicing instead of going through CSV exports
- The per-seat pricing model makes the project management subscription too expensive for the team size
But know that: Switching means learning a new system and migrating existing data. For most users, migration takes a focused weekend. Most users make up that time within the first month.
The bottom line: ClickUp has 15+ project views and includes time tracking starting at $7 per user, though tracked time has no path to invoicing. Monday.com has a board-focused interface and a separate CRM product. Both handle project management but stop there. Proposals, contracts, invoicing, and client portals require other apps. If the workflow already spans multiple tools and the manual handoffs are eating hours every week, the comparison table below shows how all-in-one platforms like Plutio stack up against both.
Research & Sources
This comparison is based on hands-on testing, official docs, and analysis of user feedback across major review platforms. All data was verified in February 2026.
Research methodology
Each tool was evaluated through active trial accounts, official feature documentation, and analysis of thousands of user reviews across G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, and Reddit. Pricing was verified directly from official pricing pages. The focus was on common pain points from 1-3 star reviews where users share honest limitations.
Platform ratings (February 2026)
- ClickUp: 4.7/5 on G2 (19,700+ combined reviews across platforms), 4.6/5 on Capterra (4,500+ reviews), 3.3/5 on Trustpilot (460+ reviews)
- Monday.com: 4.7/5 on G2 (14,060+ reviews), 4.6/5 on Capterra (5,600+ reviews), 2.7/5 on Trustpilot (3,387 reviews)
- Plutio: 4.6/5 on G2 (200+ reviews), praised for all-in-one coverage and white-labeling
Common user complaints (from 1-3 star reviews)
ClickUp users frequently mention: "Performance issues made it unusable for my team," "The wide variety of features can be overwhelming," "Fear of losing tasks due to complexity," "Pricing is completely intransparent"
Monday.com users frequently mention: "3-seat minimum is pointless for solo business," "Auto-renews with no email notification," "Inviting extra users triggers automatic upgrade charges," "Not built for enterprise or complex use"
Pricing sources (verified February 2026)
- ClickUp: Official pricing page
- Monday.com: Official pricing page
- Plutio: Official pricing page
Feature verification
- ClickUp G2 reviews (19,700+ combined reviews)
- Monday.com G2 reviews (14,060+ reviews)
- ClickUp Help Center
- Monday.com Support
If you find any inaccuracies or outdated information, please let us know so we can investigate and update.
