Introduction
Whether you’re debating between Monday vs Jira or simply curious about the competition, our comprehensive comparison is here to guide you.
Missed deadlines, unclear communication, and scattered tasks – these are some challenges that arise in the absence of the right tool.
Moreover, what makes the situation even worse is choosing the best one out of a plenty of tools.
Monday.com and Jira are two decent project management software options that can help teams streamline workflow and execute projects seamlessly.
Both of them shine through the lens of efficiency, but differences do exist. The confusion between the two is understandable.
In this article, we’ll break down the features and functionalities of both platforms. We’ll also highlight ProofHub, a powerful alternative, that may become your top choice as you move through the decision-making process.
So, let’s find out how they stack up against each other.
What is the difference between Monday.com and Jira?
The main difference between Monday.com and Jira is that Monday.com is a highly customizable work management platform designed for managing a variety of workflows across different teams. While, Jira is specifically tailored for software development teams, offering robust features for issue tracking, and agile project management, making it ideal for managing complex software development projects.
Overview of Monday.com
Monday.com, formerly known as daPulse, is one of the versatile tools available in the market. It is commonly referred to as a project management tool, however it is a work management tool. It positions itself as a platform that can be used for multiple purposes. Besides its project management capabilities, it can be used as a customer relationship management (CRM) and software development management (Dev) solution.
Teams all across use it for various purposes: project management, customer management, task management, sprint management, team collaboration, bug tracking, and much more.
Known for its Kanban methodology adoption and visually appealing elements, the tool is highly suitable for marketing and creative teams.
Monday.com’s strengths lie in its intuitive drag-and-drop functionality and unparalleled ability to customize. However, it falls short due to its limited reporting capabilities, basic automation, and no built-in collaboration features.
Not satisfied with Monday.com’s offerings? Discover Best monday alternatives to find the best fit for your organization.
Overview of Jira
Jira Software, a member of the Atlassian family, is an agile project management solution. Initially founded as an issue & bug-tracking software tool in 2002, it has since evolved to be a comprehensive platform for handling all aspects of the software development process. Furthermore, some other products of the Atlassian family include Jira service management, Jira work management, and more.
Companies can use the tool for issue tracking, sprint planning, Scrum and Kanban support, backlog prioritization, and sprint planning.
The agile and flexible framework of Jira is suitable for teams working with customizable workflows, multiple project management methodologies, and coding and software development.
Jira’s appreciated traits include bug tracking, complex reporting functionalities, and advanced roadmaps. One thing that takes down Jira is its steeper learning curve due to its technical approach.
Looking for alternatives to Jira? Explore our comprehensive guide to discover the top Jira alternatives
Monday.com vs Jira comparison table
| Feature | Monday.com | Jira |
| Pricing | Free plan for up to 2 users Paid plans start at $9/user/month | Free plan for up to 10 users Paid plans start at $7.16/user/month |
| Project Management Style | Visual and flexible | Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) |
| Task Management | Kanban boards, timelines, task lists | Kanban boards, backlogs, sprints |
| Collaboration Tools | Whiteboards, updates section, embedded docs, @mentions | Comments, @mentions, workspace discussions, file attachments, smart links |
| Automation | Basic automation to automate processes | Advanced automation to control the workflows |
| Customization Options | Highly customizable boards, views, automation | Customizable workflows, fields, issue types |
| Reporting and Analytics | Basic reporting | Robust reporting on sprints, burndown charts, workload, and more |
| Integrations (with other tools) | Integrates with popular tools like Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox | Integrates with development tools (Git, GitHub), communication tools (Slack) |
Monday.com vs Jira: side-by-side features comparison
Monday.com and Jira are on par with each other regarding effectiveness. However, who wins the game to effectiveness, hugely depends on how user-friendly teams find these platforms to be.
Let’s dissect the efficiency of these platforms into various categories.
1. Project management
➡️ Task management
Monday.com’s color-coded dashboard and modest task views are much more suitable for all project types and needs. Its customizable labels and columns provide visual task updates. However, you need to rely on templates to avail of development features.
Jira’s powerful agile dashboard and structured interface support issue tracking and backlog management. Suited more for software development than general project management, it improves clarity across your workflow. You can use this to deliver maximum in minimal cycle time and get granular control over your workflow.
➡️ Team collaboration
Monday.com’s collaboration features though not wholesome, still manage to beat Jira. It allows users to have discussions on whiteboards, leave comments using @mentions, and embed docs for seamless collaboration.
Jira’s collaboration functionality is far limited to what Monday.com offers. You can only communicate via @comments on cards, have workspace discussions, and add file attachments. However, you can integrate it with other tools to promote real-time collaboration.
➡️ Workflow automation
Monday.com’s automation is less convincing than Jira’s. You can easily create no-code automation and customize them to suit your workflow in no time. You can either choose to create it on your own or use a pre-prepared template. The platform does not support automation in every plan.
Jira also allows you to build your automation using no code, and drag and drop instructions. Or, you can even start by choosing either from its hundreds of pre-built automation templates. Jira automation is available on every plan, however, the count varies in every plan.
➡️ Reporting
Monady.com offers some basic reporting functionality in comparison to Jira. It is highly suitable for teams to get a glance at various project aspects. You can use these insights to meet your project objectives.
Jira’s powerful reporting tools help you stay on top of your sprints, tasks, and workflows. Additionally, you can get real-time insights into your development pipeline to improve retrospectives, spot blockages, analyze issues, and forecast to optimize efficiency.
2. Usability and user experience
➡️ Interface design and learning curve
Monday.com’s interface is highly intuitive and easy to use when compared to Jira. Notably, with its interface similar to spreadsheets, Monday.com’s aesthetically pleasing platform enhances user experience. Additionally, its seamless navigation allows teams to easily adapt to its interface.
Jira’s scrum and Kanban board approach to project management is more complex. It provides richer features and stronger capabilities for advanced operations but can be overwhelming for beginners. Its terminology can seem complex to non-technical users in comparison to technical teams.
➡️ Customization
Both Monday.com and Jira are highly customizable. In addition, you can create custom workflows, dashboards, and more to tailor your workflow to your specific needs. Moreover, you can even use project templates to kickstart your projects without delving into complex configurations.
3. Integration capabilities
Jira and Monday.com showcase strong compatibility with third-party tools. While Monday.com covers a broader spectrum, Jira too doesn’t lag. Moreover, Monday.com offers around 200+ DevOps integrations, covering a vast range with additional costs. However, it imposes a certain limit on actions per month in its higher pricing plans.
On the other hand, Jira offers 3000+ Atlassian and third-party integrations. Additionally, you can witness diverse categories in the Atlassian marketplace to cater to different business cases. This provides flexibility to add additional functionalities to your existing tech stack.
4. Templates
Jira and Monday.com both own template libraries to jumpstart projects quickly. Monday.com offers 200+ templates covering a broad range of categories.
Jira, however, takes the lead by providing more templates to get started in no time. You can choose any template from its easy-to-browse 11 categories such as software development, project management, service management, marketing, and more.
5. Customer support
Jira’s customer services are limited to Monday.com. Monday.com offers a comprehensive knowledge base, including tutorials, guides, instructions, and articles in all its plans. It also offers 24/7 customer support in all its plans except the Free plan.
Also, you get exclusive access to its live webinars, training, and video tutorials, with a dedicated customer success manager and 99.9% uptime SLA available on its Enterprise plan only. With Monday.com’s Academy and community, you can learn all the intricacies of the platform.
Jira’s Free plan users spend major time looking for answers in community forums. On the other hand, only business-hours support is available on the Standard plan.
Its 24/7 customer support is only available on higher plans, where Premium users can reach out for high-impact issues and Enterprise users for all the technical issues. Enterprise users also get dedicated phone support. Jira also has a knowledge base and community support sites. Uptime SLA is 99.9% for the Premium plan and 99.95% for the Enterprise plan.
Monday.com vs Jira: pricing and plans
Monday.com and Jira offer various pricing packages tailored to different organizations, with features and functionalities varying based on the selected plan.
Let’s compare both the tools plan by plan-
Both Monday.com and Jira offer a free trial and a plan. Monday.com’s free plan allows 2 members, 3 boards, and up to 1000 items with 500 MB storage and no automation.
Jira’s free plan is more generous, supporting 10 users, unlimited projects, 2 GB storage, and 100 automation per month.
Monday.com’s basic plan, priced at $9/seat/month, includes 5 GB storage and unlimited boards, items, and docs. However, it lacks access to task views beyond Kanban, limiting its appeal.
Note: Monday.com charges users per seat. And for every plan you must purchase a minimum of 3 seats.
Trello and Monday.com’s Standard plan is comparable to each other. Monday.com costs $12/seat/month, while Jira is $8.15/user/month. Monday.com offers 250 automation actions, compared to Jira’s 1700.
Monday.com’s Pro plan is $19/seat/month with additional features, while its Enterprise plan offers more scalability. Jira’s Premium plan is $16/user/month, including unlimited storage and advanced tools. For Jira’s Enterprise plan, contact their sales team.
| Plans | Monday.com | Jira |
| Free Plan | 2 users 500 MB file storage | 10 users, 2 GB storage, 100 automation |
| Entry-Tier Plan | Basic: $9/user/month (billed annually) unlimited users and viewers 5 GB storage, 24/7 support | N/A |
| Mid-Tier Plan | Standard: $12 per user per month, 20GB storage, 250 monthly automation, Timeline view, Calendar view, Map view | Standard: $7.16 per user per month, 250GB storage, 50,000 user limit, 1,700 automation, Better security |
| High-Tier Plan | Pro: $19 per user per month, 100GB of storage, 25,000 automation, Time tracking, Chart view | Premium $12.48 per user per month, Unlimited storage, 1,000 automation per user per month, 24/7 premium support |
| Enterprise Plan | Contact the sales team for pricing, 250,000 actions/month, Enterprise-level security and administration control | Contact the sales team for pricing, Unlimited automation, Advanced admin controls and security |
Note: Jira’s per-user pricing slides (decrease) as the number of users increases beyond 100. But still falls on the expensive side.
Monday.com vs Jira : User ratings & reviews
Let us take into account some user experiences with each tool to understand their real-world sentiments.
Monday.com reviews
Monday.com has a user rating of 4.7 on G2 and 4.6 on Captera.
User positive review:
“Great for multitasking, project managing, and everything in between!” – Tyler T., Mid-Market
Using Monday.com really does help me plan what’s in the system and what’s been approved. – Claudia D., Small-Business
Users negative review:
“Automation is too limited and Customer Service help is a JOKE!” – Alex V., General Manager
“It could be a little more user friendly in that I would like to be able to make changes to the ‘My Work’ board so I can add in things on the go.” – Pooja P.
Jira reviews
Jira has a user rating of 4.3 on G2 and 4.4 on Capterra.
Users positive review:
“it helps me to complete my task on time, this is beacuse jira sprint track all task of that sprint and if any task is remaining then i easily got to know from jira.” – Ashwini B., Small-Business
Users negative review:
“The UI of jira is not that great. I mean they should work on their UI part. The subscription amount increases based on user and that is also very high. I think they should work on their pricing part.” – Ninad M., Small-Business
Here are some random user statements available on Reddit & Quora:
“I can say that Jira is just a ticketing system, and confluense a wiki-like documentation system. I think Monday.com is a proper project management tool.” – via Reddit
“JIRA is far more scalable than Monday.com, full stop. The bigger the team, the more diverse the requirements, dependencies, and levels of visibility/autonomy required between them.” – via Quora
Which is better, Jira or Monday.com?
There is no better or one-size-fits solution. Because the excellence zone of both differs from one another.
Jira is a top choice for agile software development teams, while Monday.com shines in managing day-to-day workloads.
However, the ideal choice greatly depends on your unique project management needs and perspectives. Here is a quick breakdown of the parameters you must consider before deciding your ideal bet.
1. Project type
If your business focuses on ongoing tasks, marketing campaigns, and creative projects, Monday.com is perfect for you. However, if you want a robust feature set for repetitive software development lifecycles based on Agile methodologies, Jira might be the right fit for you.
2. Team size and structure
Monday.com is best suited for smaller to mid-size teams due to its simplistic approach to project management. Jira, on the other hand, works fine for large, complex organizations. It showcases its mastery in handling large product development departments or teams with prior Agile experience.
3. Desired functionality
Choose Monday.com if you prioritize an easy-to-use interface with powerful customization options. Moreover, it offers Kanban boards and basic reporting and automation functionalities.
On the other hand, you should opt for Jira if advanced project visualization is crucial for your scrum teams. Its in-depth reporting, workload management, and complex automation capabilities are unmatched.
Here’s a quick recap:
Choose Monday.com if:
- You have smaller or mid-size teams.
- You want complete work management software to organize your workload.
- Your team prioritizes the Kanban board’s visualization for project management.
- You are looking for a user-friendly interface for your team to easily adapt to.
- You want the flexibility to handle diverse project types.
- You want basic reporting and automation.
Choose Jira if:
- You have medium to large size scrum teams.
- You want an agile solution to streamline your development cycles.
- Your team leans towards advanced Scrum and Kanban boards to implement agile methodologies.
- Your team holds the technical expertise to run a feature-rich platform.
- You have complex software development projects with strict deadlines.
- You want in-depth reporting and automation tailored to your needs.
- You are already a user of either of the Atlassian family products.
ProofHub: A better alternative to Monday.com and Jira
When talking about Jira and Monday.com’s alternatives, the closest alternative that crops up is ProofHub.
This all-in-one project management and team collaboration tool with its robust functionalities, combines the strengths of both Monday.com and Jira.
Key features
- ProofHub, like Monday.com., boasts a user-friendly interface with intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.
- It offers multiple visual task management tools to support agile methodologies like Jira by integrating its core functionalities for agile methodologies like Kanban boards, task dependencies, and Calendar for software development teams.
- ProofHub surpasses both Jira & Monday.com by providing robust collaboration features. Additionally, it provides built-in chat, discussions, file-sharing, @mentions, and more, meaning you do not need separate communication platforms for better collaboration.
- It is easy to adapt to and throws a minimal learning curve to new onboarding users.
- It offers a built-in time tracker to track time spent on tasks and for efficient time management.
- You can create custom reports to get detailed project insights into performance.
Apart from all these functionalities, ProofHub beats both Jira and Monday.com in the affordability domain. Its scalable flat-fee pricing caters to the needs of teams of all sizes.
ProofHub Pricing
ProofHub offers a transparent pricing structure with 14-day free trial and two paid plans:
- Essential: $45/month (billed annually) for unlimited users
- Pro: $89/month (billed annually) for unlimited users and projects
Conclusion
Jira and Monday.com one way or another share identical feature sets but appeal to different audiences. Where Monday.com’s intuitive task management steals the show, Jira’s in-depth and technical expertise grabs the attention of software teams.
However, no platform is without drawback. And that can be seen from their per-user pricing and advanced features limited to higher plans. ProofHub eliminates all these concerns with its robust feature set and flat-fee pricing, making it a suitable replacement for both tools.
Related articles
- Monday.com for product management: Is it worth the hype?
- Monday.com review – All you wanted to know
- 27 best Monday.com alternatives & competitors for project work in 2024
- Jira kanban board: Is there a better replacement?
- 23 best Jira alternatives & competitors for agile project management
FAQs
What are the advantages of Monday over Jira?
Monday.com surpasses Jira in terms of flexibility, ease of use, and its visually aesthetic user interface. Moreover, the versatile nature of monday makes it an ideal option for teams seeking work management capabilities.
Does Monday support Agile?
Yes, monday.com does support agile methodologies. Its Kanban board ingrained functionality, and its development features like sprint management, bug tracking, and roadmap planning, are some advanced features. However, these are not at par with Jira’s in-depth agile capabilities.
Can you integrate Monday com with Jira?
Yes, monday.com does offer integration with Jira to collaborate across departments on projects. You can set up Jira Monday integration by syncing up in either one-way or two-way, and that too in just 3 minutes.
Who uses Jira the most?
Jira is most commonly used by software development teams, especially ones utilizing agile methodologies.
Why is Jira so difficult to use?
Jira despite its immense popularity among software development teams is quite hard to use. It has a shallow learning curve in comparison to monday.com, which requires teams to get extensive training and technical expertise to get familiar with it. Also, its user interface is outdated in comparison to other tools in the market.
