AlternativesUpdated

Best monday.com Alternatives in 2026

monday.com runs work on boards, priced per seat, with paid plans sold from 3 seats. If you are a team of one or two, the seats add up, or the people using it are your clients, here are six alternatives and what each one does.

By the Fabricate teamWe make Fabricate6 min readPrices checked
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An app's database, form responses, keys and visitor accounts in Fabricate Cloud. Real Fabricate screens, shown with sample data.

Key takeaways

  • monday.com is free for up to 2 seats; paid plans are sold from 3 seats, from $9 per seat a month billed yearly.
  • Basecamp charges one price for the account rather than per seat, from $29 a month.
  • Asana suits teams planning many projects; Trello suits simple boards; ClickUp puts tasks and docs together.
  • Airtable suits teams that work in the records themselves, with free read-only collaborators.
  • Fabricate builds a tracker around how your team works, which clients can sign in to, with no price per person who signs in. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.

Why Are Teams Looking for monday.com Alternatives?

  • Plans Start From 3 Seats

    Paid plans are sold from 3 seats, so a team of one or two pays for three. Basic is $9 per seat a month billed yearly, Standard $12 and Pro $19.

  • A Small Free Plan

    Free covers up to 2 seats, 3 boards and 3 Docs.

  • Priced per Seat

    Every person on the team takes a seat, so the price grows with the team.

    Fits: Basecamp

  • Clients Who Sign In

    When clients should follow their own work, a tracker built around them does that without a seat for each one.

    Fits: Fabricate

Compare at a glance

Fabricate beside monday.com, feature by feature.

  • Builds From a Description
    Fabricate
    Yes
    monday.com
    No, a ready-made tool
  • Price per Person
    Fabricate
    None for the people who sign in to a published app
    monday.com
    From $9 per seat a month billed yearly, from 3 seats
  • Free Plan
    Fabricate
    Build and preview
    monday.com
    Up to 2 seats, 3 boards and 3 Docs
  • Clients Sign In
    Fabricate
    To their own project only, if you ask for it
    monday.com
    Each person takes a seat
  • Paid Plans From
    Fabricate
    $25 a month
    monday.com
    $9 per seat a month, billed yearly
Number 1

Fabricate

We make this

Best for: A tracker built around how you work

Builds a project or task app from your description: a board you drag tasks across, lists, owners, due dates, comments and a page of what is due, behind a sign-in for your team, and clients can sign in to follow only their own project. The people who sign in to a published app are not counted as seats. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.

Checks before you publish

Fabricate's security check on an app: one problem to fix and two quality warnings, each with a Fix in chat button
Each finding comes with a Fix in chat button. A real Fabricate screen, shown with sample data.

What it does well

  • Only the fields and stages you use
  • Clients sign in to their own project
  • No price per person who signs in
Paid plans from
$25 a month
350 credits a month on Pro
Free plan
60 credits
A month, to build and preview
A live app
Pro and Max
Publishing is on paid plans

See the plans

How to Move from monday.com to Fabricate

  1. 1

    Save your tasks as a CSV file

    Export what you can from monday.com, or copy your tasks into a spreadsheet and save it as CSV.

  2. 2

    Describe how your team works

    Say what a project is for you, the stages a task goes through, who works on what and who may change it.

  3. 3

    Ask for an import page

    Ask for a page, behind your own sign-in, that adds the rows of your CSV file to the app's own database.

  4. 4

    Test it in the preview

    Sign in as two teammates, move tasks, comment, and check who can see and change what.

  5. 5

    Put it online

    On Pro, one press of Publish gives it its own address to share, after the same browser check.

Chat

Fabricate's chat on a phone: the owner asks for opening hours and a note about cardamom buns, and Fabricate says what it changed and that it used 5 credits

Your app

The same bakery app in Fabricate's Your app view on a phone, now showing Open today 7am - 3pm above its menu
Asking for a change in chat, then trying the app. Real Fabricate screens on a phone, shown with sample data.

The other monday.com alternatives

What each one does well, and the kind of project it suits best.

  1. Number 2

    Basecamp

    Best for: Small teams that want a flat price

    Projects with message boards, to-dos, Card Tables for Kanban and group chat, at one price for the account rather than per user. Personal is free for 1 project and up to 3 people; Freelancer is $29 a month for 3 projects and 5 users, and Pro $79 for 8 projects and 10 users.

    • A flat price, not per user
    • One project free
    • Message boards, to-dos and chat

    Where Basecamp beats Fabricate

    If you would rather not pay for each person, Basecamp charges one price for the account, from $29 a month for 5 users.

    From $29 a month

    Source: basecamp.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

  2. Number 3

    Asana

    Best for: Teams planning many projects

    Plans a team's projects and tasks, with Asana AI included on its paid plans. Personal is free for up to 2 users; Starter is $13.49 per user a month billed monthly, or $10.99 billed yearly.

    • Projects and tasks for teams
    • AI included on paid plans
    • Goals and capacity on Advanced

    Where Asana beats Fabricate

    If several teams plan many projects at once and want goals and capacity across them, Asana is built for that.

    From $13.49 per user a monthAsana alternatives

    Source: asana.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

  3. Number 4

    Trello

    Best for: Simple boards for a small team

    Boards of cards your team drags between lists, from Atlassian. Free covers up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per Workspace; Standard is $6 per user a month billed monthly, or $5 billed yearly.

    • Simple boards of cards
    • Free for up to 10 collaborators
    • Phone apps for iOS and Android

    Where Trello beats Fabricate

    If all your team needs is a board of cards to drag across, Trello is ready in minutes, free for up to 10 collaborators, with phone apps.

    From $6 per user a monthTrello alternatives

    Source: trello.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

  4. Number 5

    ClickUp

    Best for: Teams that want every view in one tool

    Tasks, collaborative docs, Kanban boards, a calendar view and sprints in one workspace. Free Forever has unlimited tasks and free plan members, 60MB of storage and 100 automation actions a month; paid plans are priced per user.

    • Tasks and docs in one place
    • No cap on free members
    • Sprints and time tracking

    Where ClickUp beats Fabricate

    If your team wants tasks, docs and boards in one tool and the free plan's members are not capped, ClickUp gives you that the day you sign up.

    ClickUp alternatives

    Source: clickup.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

  5. Number 6

    Airtable

    Best for: Teams that work in the records

    A database that looks like a spreadsheet, with interfaces, forms and automations on top. Free covers up to 5 editors and 1,000 records per base; Team is $24 per seat a month, billed monthly, and read-only collaborators are free.

    • Grids, boards and calendars
    • Interfaces and forms
    • Free read-only collaborators

    Where Airtable beats Fabricate

    If your team mostly works in the records themselves, sorting, filtering and editing in grids, Airtable is built for that, and read-only collaborators cost nothing.

    From $24 per seat a monthAirtable alternatives

    Sources: airtable.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked ; Airtable support: Airtable plans (opens in a new tab), checked

monday.com and its alternatives: seats, minimums and who signs in

monday.com runs work on boards that many kinds of team can share, from projects to requests. Free covers up to 2 seats and 3 boards, which is enough to try it.

Paid plans are sold from 3 seats, so even one or two people pay for three: Basic is $9 per seat a month billed yearly, Standard $12 and Pro $19. As the team grows, every person adds a seat.

Basecamp is priced the other way round, with one price for the account. Trello is free for up to 10 collaborators; ClickUp has no cap on free members; Asana suits many projects; Airtable suits teams that live in the records.

A tracker built with Fabricate is your own web app, with only the stages and fields you describe. The backend is written into the app's own code: server routes in a Durable Object on Cloudflare Workers, with its own SQLite database. Your team signs in with an invite code, clients can sign in to see only their own project, and nobody who signs in takes a seat. Email reminders and push notifications, ready-made integrations with other tools, sharing documents between people, and phone apps from the App Store or Google Play are not built in. The app opens in any phone browser, and anyone can add it to their home screen.

Frequently asked questions

Is monday.com free?
Yes, for up to 2 seats, with up to 3 boards and 3 Docs. Paid plans are sold from 3 seats: Basic is $9 per seat a month billed yearly, Standard $12 and Pro $19.
What is the best free monday.com alternative?
For a small team, Trello, free for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace. For a team that wants tasks and docs together with no cap on free members, ClickUp. For a tracker built around your own process, Fabricate, which we make. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.
Is there an alternative without a price per seat?
Basecamp charges one price for the account: Freelancer is $29 a month for up to 5 users and Pro $79 for up to 10. Fabricate does not count the people who sign in to a published app.
Can I build my own app like monday.com?
You can build the parts most teams use: boards, lists, tasks with owners and due dates, comments and a view of what is due. Describe your projects, the stages a task goes through and who works on it, and Fabricate builds the app and shows it working in a preview. It is your own app rather than a hosted product, so there is no ready-made integrations library or App Store app, and you add features by asking for them.
Can I move my monday.com boards to Fabricate?
Not as a file, but you can rebuild them: save each board as a CSV file, describe its stages and who works on what, and ask for an import page that adds your items to the app's own database. Syncing with monday.com is not built in.
Does an app built with Fabricate send reminders when a task is due?
Not by email or notification. The app shows what is due today, this week and late when someone opens it. Ask for live updates and new messages and posts appear on open screens without a refresh, over a connection to the app's own server.

Sources

The pages this guide quotes, each with the day it was read.

  1. monday.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  2. basecamp.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  3. asana.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  4. trello.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  5. clickup.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  6. airtable.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  7. Airtable support: Airtable plans (opens in a new tab), checked
  8. fabricate.build/pricing, from our live plans

About this guide

Written by the Fabricate team. Fabricate is our product, so it is first on this page and marked "We make this". Where a reason to switch fits another tool better, the reason says which.

Each tool's card lists the pages we read about it and the day we read them. We compared the tools from their own pricing pages and documentation, not by signing up for them. Spotted something out of date? Write to info@fabricate.build.

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