Airtable vs Monday: Which PM Tool is Right for You?
As a project manager, selecting an ideal project management software is crucial to stay organized and to streamline your workflows.
However, when so many options are available in the market, focusing on diverse project kinds, choosing the right one for your company can be challenging.
Two popular project management software that has been gaining a lot of attention since their birth is Airtable and Monday.
In this blog post, we will do a comprehensive Airtable vs Monday comparison to determine if any suits your organization’s project management needs.
- First, we will have a summary of both project management tools.
- Then, we will analyze the key features of modern project management software and examine how Airtable and Monday perform on those features.
- Third, we will recap the pros and cons.
- Lastly, we will give you our final opinions.
Round 1: An Overview of Airtable and Monday
A. Airtable
Airtable is a flexible and robust relational database management tool that can be used in many ways. The company’s CEO and co-founder, Howie Liu, started Airtable in 2013 to create a unique solution for businesses to manage a lot of data with fun.
Airtable allows users to organize data in a structured way, similar to how spreadsheets work, but with the added ability to link data together, create customized views, and even build simple apps.
It also offers various templates for different use cases, including project management, CRM, event planning, etc. Currently, 300,000+ organizations use Airtable to manage their multiple projects.
B. Monday
Monday is an all-in-one collaborative project management tool that provides users with a platform to offer a range of superb features to manage tasks and projects and enhance team communication.
Its customizable boards and automation with third-party integrations allow users to see what’s going on in their organization in an easy way, making it popular among small to medium-sized businesses.
The platform was founded in 2012 by Eran Kampf, Roy Mann, and Eran Zinman, and currently, over 152000 users are using Monday.com as their daily PM tool.
Round 2: Airtable Vs Monday- Head-to-Head Feature Comparison
The following characteristics are critical components of modern project management software, and we will compare how Airtable and Monday perform against them:
- Task Management Capabilities:
- Team Collaboration:
- Ease of Use
- Workflow Automation
- Analytics:
- Integration
- Customer Support:
- Additional capabilities:
- Pricing
1. Task Management Capabilities:
A. Airtable
Airtable offers rugged task management capabilities that empower teams to track and organize their work effectively.
However, the way they approach task management is quite different. Airtable allows teams to create individual tasks within a spreadsheet-like database, which can be customized to suit different project needs.
Unlike Google Sheets, Airtable allows users to track their projects using the Timeline, Kanban, Gantt, Calendar, Grid, Gallery, and other views and manipulate their data across the organization. Users can also create custom views to sort and filter tasks based on different criteria, such as due dates or priority.
With features like task assignments, deadlines, progress tracking, and priority levels, users can easily manage their tasks and stay on top of their projects.
In addition, Airtable comes with tons of built-in project templates to give you a quick start in your project and data management journey.
For instance, the Content Calendar template gives you a quick start on planning digital media releases, and the Bug Tracker helps you find loops in your new application.
B. Monday
Monday offers a more visual and straightforward approach to task governance with its board-based system that allows teams to drag and drop tasks between different stages.
It provides 15+ task viewing systems such as List View, Gantt Chart, Dashboard, Timeline, Kanban board, and others to help you plan and manage your tasks seamlessly.
You will find all the popular task-managing features, such as setting, task dependencies, assigning team members, routing tasks, and others, on Monday as well.
Monday Project also offers over 200 built-in templates to help you focus on your tasks from day one. But, it does not provide complex data management features like Airtable!
2. Team Collaboration:
A. Airtable
Airtable offers a variety of team collaboration features that allow teams to work together seamlessly on a shared view of table data. With Airtable, different teams can work on the same project simultaneously, making collaborating and sharing ideas easier.
Airtable’s real-time collaboration capabilities help teams assign tasks, and set due dates, ensuring everyone can access the most up-to-date information.
Additionally, it has customizable permission settings with its new Interface Designer feature, allowing you to control who can view, edit or store data, ensuring privacy and security.
B. Monday
Monday.com offers many features to support teamwork, communication, and productivity. With the ability to assign tasks, track deadlines, and visualize workloads through the timeline column, teams can easily stay on track and meet their goals.
Also, Monday focuses more on in-platform communication capabilities, such as a built-in messaging system, smart docs, file sharing system and email sync, skype calls, and more.
3. User Interface and Ease of Use
A. Airtable
Airtable is known for its highly customizable database-style interface that allows users to create unique workflows and views. The platform offers a span of templates to help users get started, and its drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to create and modify tables.
However, the highly customizable interface of Airtable may require a bit of a learning curve for new users. And anyone can learn Airtable within a few days; all the resources are available.
B. Monday
Monday offers a more structured approach to project management with a visual and intuitive interface. The platform’s variety of project templates is easy to learn and start. Also, Monday’s interface is designed to be highly customizable, with the ability to add custom fields and workflows.
However, the customization options on Monday are not as extensive as those offered by Airtable, making it quickly adopted by new users.
4. Workflow Automation:
A. Airtable
Airtable lets you automate repetitive tasks and streamline your workflows. You can set up automated actions based on triggers, such as new records, task updates, or deletions.
For example, you can automatically send email notifications or chat messages to team members when a record is updated or create a new record in a different table when a record is added to a particular table. Airtable also offers pre-built automation templates that you can use for common workflows.
B. Monday
Monday’s workflow automation feature also allows you to create custom automation recipes easily. You can choose from various triggers, such as status changes, date changes, or new item creation, and combine them with actions, such as email notifications, updates, or moving items to different boards.
Monday’s automation can also be created with an easy drag-and-drop interface, and you can use pre-built automation recipes or create your custom ones from scratch.
5. Analytics:
A. Airtable
Airtable has a powerful analytics feature that allows you to view data in various ways and governance advanced reporting. You can employ filters to sort and group data, create charts and graphs to visualize your data, and use pivot tables to summarize data.
You can use Airtable’s built-in reporting features to generate reports on your project’s progress and team performance.
Airtable also offers an API to create your own reporting systems using custom scripts and integrates with popular analytics tools like Tableau and Power BI, making it easy to analyze your data in the tool of your choice.
B. Monday
Monday also has robust analytics capabilities, including dashboards and reporting features. You can build custom dashboards to display the information you need in real-time, such as project progress, team workload, and budget tracking.
Monday’s reporting features allow you to generate custom reports to monitor key factors in a project’s status, performance, and team member’ productivity.
Additionally, Monday offers integrations with popular analytics tools like Google Analytics and Excel, allowing you to export and analyze data with other tools.
6. Integrations:
A. Airtable
Airtable integrates with over 1000+ apps, including Zapier (adds 5000+ integrations), Trello, Slack, Google Drive, and more.
And its integration capacity covers various categories such as marketing, sales, development, customer support, and others, making it a versatile tool for businesses of all sizes. Airtable also offers an API to integrate your data with other systems to meet specific needs.
B. Monday
Monday.com equips a variety of integrations with popular apps like Slack, Trello, Asana, Zapier, and more. Though Monday offers fewer native integrations than Airtable, with Zapier, you will get 5000+ integrations.
Along with these, Monday offers a GraphQl API that allows users to build custom integrations or connect with other platforms.
7. Customer Support:
A. Airtable
Airtable’s customer support has been praised for its quick response times, and user-friendly, and personalized solutions. The company offers email support and a chatbot to help answer frequently asked questions.
Airtable also provides detailed guides and tutorials on its website and a community forum where users can exchange tips and tricks.
B. Monday
Monday’s customer support has also been appreciated for its effectiveness. The company provides users with email and phone support and a Live Chat feature accessible directly from the platform.
Monday also offers a comprehensive knowledge base with articles, tutorials, and webinars to help users learn how to use the tool and solve any issues they may encounter. So, you will also not face any problems regarding support on Monday.
8. Additional Capabilities:
A. Airtable
One key feature that sets Airtable apart from other database tools is its Extension feature. Airtable Extensions are pre-built integrations allowing users to extend their Airtable bases’ functionality.
These Extensions can be installed with just a few clicks and can significantly enhance the capabilities and core functionality of an Airtable base without requiring any coding or technical expertise.
Airtable Extensions cover many use cases, from automating repetitive tasks to connecting with external data sources. For example, the “Page Designer” Extension allows users to create custom-designed PDFs or reports from their Airtable data!
In addition, the “3D Space extension “allows users to visualize their data in three-dimensional space to enhance their creative production efforts!
Anyone can easily create 3D models that represent their data, such as a map of their business locations or a graph of their sales figures, and then navigate through these models as if they were exploring a virtual world.
Airtable also allows you to create custom extensions using their SDK if you need specific functionality.
B. Monday
Mondy.com does not offer such advanced features as Airtable but is a Work OS with different components. You get several specialized capabilities in Monday’s Work OS, including Monday Work-Management, Monday Marketer, Monday Sales CRM, Monday Projects, and Monday Dev.
The dedicated work-management hub enables teams to track their work and projects from start to finish, allowing them to see progress, identify bottlenecks, and manage deadlines. Monday Marketer is designed for marketing teams and includes campaign management, creative briefs, and content calendars.
The Sales CRM is aimed at sales teams and provides lead management, deal tracking, and pipeline management features.
Monday Projects is tailored to project management, and the workflow engine includes Gantt charts, time tracking, and resource management features. And the Monday Dev is designed for software development teams and includes team collaboration, sprint planning, and bug-tracking features.
So, the Monday Work OS gives you a complete package of what you need from advanced yet straightforward project management software. But the cost may increase if you choose all Monday’s work OS components!
9. Pricing (Airtable vs Monday):
A. Airtable Pricing
Airtable offers a flexible pricing plan with four options: Free, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise. The Free program allows unlimited databases but has limited features, such as limited storage and a maximum of 1,200 records per database.
The Plus plan, at $10 per user per month, includes additional features such as expanded storage and viewing revision history. The Pro plan, at $20 per user per month, has all the features of the Plus plan, along with additional features such as the ability to create a read-only share link and more advanced integrations.
The Enterprise plan is designed for large teams and includes additional security and administrative features. The pricing for the Enterprise plan is customized based on the organization’s needs.
B. Monday Pricing
Monday also offers a flexible pricing plan with four options: Basic, Standard, Pro, and Enterprise. The Basic plan, at $8 per user per month, includes essential features such as unlimited boards and tasks but has limited integrations and automation.
The Standard plan, at $10 per user per month, includes additional features such as calendar and timeline views. At $16 per user per month, the Pro plan has all the Standard plan features and more advanced automation and integrations.
The Enterprise plan is designed for large organizations and includes additional security and administrative features. The pricing for the Enterprise plan is customized based on the organization’s needs.
Round 3: Computing the Advantages and Disadvantages
1. Advantages of Airtable
- Airtable works like an all-in-one solution for data management across different teams, including sales, marketing, creative engineers, and more.
- Its 3D modeler app makes it easier for creative designers to visualize their works.
- It offers modern project viewing systems, including Gantt charts, timelines, and Kanban boards.
- A unified automation engine with built-in formulas makes it easy to automate daily workloads.
- The reporting system is quite powerful; you can visualize your data organizationally.
- The pricing plan is highly scalable and offers unlimited bases, up to 1,200 records on the free program, and up to 250,000 records on the enterprise plan.
- It comes with tons of third-party integrations.
2. Disadvantages of Airtable
- The learning curve may seem harder due to the advanced features. However, templates, an enthusiastic community, and a vast knowledge base are available to assist.
- Collaboration between multilingual teams is challenging because, till now, Airtable supports the English language.
- Built-in communication options are limited at some point when compared to platforms like Monday.com.
3. Advantages of Monday
- The platform is easier to learn and use than Airtable.
- Monday offers robust task-managing capabilities, allowing teams to update each other on project status.
- The platform’s in-platform chat feature saves users time, eliminating the need for countless emails or switching to a different messaging platform.
- Monday.com‘s powerful automation capabilities allow users to automate notifications and task status changes easily.
- Tons of pre-built templates give the flexibility to manage various projects.
- Adequate integrations and customer support.
4. Disadvantages of Monday
- It does not have a dedicated database management system like Airtable, which can be a con for software projects.
- It does not offer a 3D interface designer, which can disadvantage advanced design projects.
- The pricing plans are not scalable for small teams.
Round 4: Final Thoughts: Which Platform is Right for Your Projects Airtable vs Monday.com?
Both Airtable and Monday are fantastic tools for managing projects, but their focus and approach to project management differ. Thus, choosing between the two will depend on your team’s specific needs and how complex projects you manage.
1. Who Should Use Airtable?
If you need a multipurpose relational database management tool that allows you to use it for various projects like software development and 3D modeling, and construction management, or you want to use it as a CRM, Airtable is a great choice.
Its powerful data management capability, automation engine, and a vast range of integrations make it a better tool for different teams of large organizations, startups, or solo entrepreneurs.
2. Who Should Use Monday.Com?
Monday is a better option if you’re only looking for an advanced project management tool focused on team collaboration tools and track projects.
Its easy-to-use interface, shorter learning curve, and great automation features will give you an extra edge to manage all your essential to intermediate-level projects with your different teams.
