Thinking about switching CRMs or getting one for the first time? With over 1,500 CRM platforms available in the U.S. alone, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by too many choices.
That’s where we come in. We spent weeks testing two of the most popular CRMs—Pipedrive and Monday—so you don’t have to. This no-nonsense comparison breaks down their features, pros, and cons, helping you make the right choice with confidence.
Let’s dive in!
Pipedrive is a powerful and user-friendly CRM platform designed to help businesses effectively manage their sales processes. It streamlines sales pipeline management and helps teams close more deals. Its intuitive interface and robust automation features let sales teams focus on selling and closing deals rather than get drowned in mundane tasks.
Pipedrive offers outstanding features such as a visual sales pipeline for effective deal tracking, marketing tools that help nurture leads, and a highly customizable visual reporting dashboard to see your most important KPIs in one location.
Monday is a versatile project management platform designed for teams that value productivity and effective communication. The platform is what is known as a work operating system (or Work OS) and it streamlines collaboration across and among teams to help them reach goals faster. In short, we could say it makes teamwork more efficient.
Monday's features include customizable workflows that empower businesses to create unique flows that suit their needs, robust team communication tools that help team members stay in the loop, and impressive task management features that help teams stay on track.
Pipedrive offers 5 different pricing plans to cater to businesses at all levels, from the new bootstrapped startup to the already established organization. Listed prices are per seat per month, billed annually:
Monday also offers a tiered subscription model with 5 different plans, including a free-for-life plan. However, there's a rigidity in Monday's pricing that is not very optimal.
On Monday, your subscription fee depends on how many seats you're buying. Except you don't really get to choose how many you want. You can choose from 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40. In most cases, users don't have these exact numbers of team members and end up paying for seats they don't need. And once you cross 40 seats, you have to request a quote.
Based on 3 seats, which is the minimum for paid tiers, Monday's pricing goes thus:
Pipedrive offers a visual sales pipeline with drag-and-drop functionality which makes it very intuitive to manage deals. It provides highly customizable pipeline stages and workflows you can adapt to the unique needs of your sales processes.
Its AI-powered sales assistant is programmed to analyze sales processes and provide performance insights that can help optimize your strategy. There’s also email integration and communication tracking which tells you when leads open your emails.
Monday also offers a visual dashboard. It relies on customizable boards that users can leverage to design workflows that replicate sales pipelines. It also offers impressive automation features for handling repetitive tasks, reducing manual effort on your end.
Offering multiple view options like Kanban, Timeline, and Gantt, Monday is no doubt a versatile platform. While its sales-focused features are useful, it excels more as a general-purpose project management tool. It is also worth noting that there is Monday CRM, Monday’s CRM tool which comes with a distinct feature set and pricing, and can only be layered on top of the work OS.
Verdict: Pipedrive wins.
Its specialized sales tools, such as AI-driven insights, advanced reporting, and communication tracking, make it superior to Monday, which is better suited for broader work management purposes.
Pipedrive offers tools that let users easily set up a vast range of automation for admin tasks, such as creating deals, sending follow-up emails, scheduling sales calls, and much more.
Its customizable workflows can adapt seamlessly to different sales processes, making it the ideal tool for teams with unique requirements.
Monday equally offers powerful automation features that let users put several tasks on autopilot, including notifications, status updates, and task assignments, to enhance productivity. Workflows on Monday are also highly customizable and can be tailored for different industries and teams. With its visual automation builder, setting up complex workflows on Monday is easier than most other platforms.
Verdict: It's a tie.
Both Pipedrive and Monday offer advanced automation tools that help users spend less time on admin tasks and more on things that matter to achieving their goals. Their workflows and dashboards are also highly customizable.
Pipedrive's reporting and analytics are among its best features, providing detailed insights into deal progression, sales performance, and team activity.
You can generate custom reports and track metrics such as conversion rates, revenue forecasts, and pipeline efficiency. The visual dashboards provide a clear overview, helping sales agents make decisions rooted in data rather than guesses.
Monday’s reporting features are designed for general project and task management, and they're quite impressive. Although they fall short in reporting specific sales data, you can create dashboards to track progress on projects, team workload, and overall performance. While this may provide insights into your team’s activity, it does little for your sales pipeline.
Verdict: Pipedrive wins.
It overshadows Monday as far as sales-specific reporting is concerned. While Monday’s reporting on teams and projects is impressive, Pipedrive offers insightful metrics such as lead-to-deal conversion rate per lead source and average time to close.
Pipedrive offers a streamlined lead management system designed specifically for sales teams. It lets you capture, organize, and qualify leads efficiently.
There's also smart contact data which pulls customers’ public data from sources like LinkedIn into your database. And with features like email integration, activity tracking, and lead scoring, Pipedrive helps users nurture leads and convert them into deals effectively.
Monday supports lead management through customizable boards and integrations with CRM tools such as Monday CRM and others. Users can track lead status, assign team members, and set reminders for follow-ups. However, lead management in Monday is less specialized, relying on manual customization or add-ons to replicate dedicated CRM functionality.
Verdict: Pipedrive wins.
Its dedicated tools for qualifying, nurturing, and closing leads make it a more powerful option for sales teams. Monday’s lead management features, on the other hand, are less specialized.
Pipedrive includes essential task management features tailored to support sales teams. You can easily create tasks tied directly to deals, such as follow-ups or client meetings, and set deadlines to stay on track.
There are also Projects by Pipedrive, which is available as a buyable add-on for professional or lower accounts but comes bundled with Power and Enterprise plans. This lets businesses easily transition to the “project execution” phase leveraging the Kanban project management framework.
Monday is a versatile platform designed with task and project management at its core. You can easily create and assign tasks, establish dependencies, and manage timelines, making it a strong choice for teams managing both simple and complex projects. The platform offers customizable workflows and multiple visualizations, including Kanban boards, as well as built-in tools for team communication, file sharing, progress tracking, and time tracking.
Verdict: Monday wins.
Built specifically for work efficiency, it stands out as the better project management tool of the two. Pipedrive is best suited for sales professionals focusing on deal progression rather than full-scale project management.
Pipedrive offers integration with over 500 tools that can enhance sales processes, including Zapier.
It connects seamlessly with popular tools like Gmail and Outlook to send and receive emails directly from your dashboard as well as marketing tools like Mailchimp, allowing users to sync contacts between both platforms and automate email campaigns. Pipedrive integrates with Trello and Asana for task management capabilities and businesses can leverage its open API to build custom integrations that meet their unique needs.
Monday equally integrates with a broad array of tools. It connects with productivity apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Drive for smooth collaboration. It also integrates with marketing tools like HubSpot and Salesforce for proper CRM features. Monday allows integration with project management tools like Trello and Asana, making it ideal for teams that rely on multiple platforms. Its API also enables users to develop custom apps, features, and workflows that don't already exist on the platform.
Verdict: Tie.
Both Pipedrive and Monday offer extensive integrations that bring out their capacity in full. They also operate an open API system that allows users to customize their integration.
Pipedrive is renowned for its user-friendly interface. The visual sales pipeline, with drag-and-drop customization enabled, makes it easy to navigate and manage deals. Setting up workflows, automation, and reports often doesn't require training, and the platform’s guided onboarding ensures users quickly become proficient.
Monday offers a visually appealing and customizable interface that caters to various workflows. Its drag-and-drop boards and multiple view options make it easy for users to adapt the platform to their preferences. While new users may find it slightly overwhelming at first, Monday provides tutorials and templates to ease the learning curve.
Verdict: Tie.
Both platforms offer clean, visually appealing interfaces and are equally user-friendly. That said, Monday’s broader functionality and wide range of options can make it slightly complex for new users.
Pipedrive provides email and chatbot support across all plans, live chat support for Advanced to Enterprise, and phone support for accounts on Power and Enterprise plans. The platform also includes a detailed knowledge base, featuring articles and videos to help users troubleshoot common issues.
Monday’s customer support is very streamlined. It offers only live chat and email support across all tiers. There’s also a help center where users can access articles and video tutorials and a vibrant community where users can discuss issues and get help.
Verdict: Tie.
Although Pipedrive provides multiple means to reach customer support, live chat is not available to plans below Advanced. Meanwhile, Monday provides just two ways to contact support.
Pipedrive is perfect for sales teams intent on managing and closing deals. These are teams that only need to nurture leads and make sales. On the other hand, Monday is best for teams looking for a comprehensive project management platform. It offers features and tools that make managing tasks and projects across teams and departments easy.
Ultimately, the best tool depends on your business needs. Pipedrive is perfect for sales teams, while Monday.com excels for broader project and task management. Consider your team size, workflow, and objectives when making a decision.
Cindy is an Outreach Manager and SEO Specialist at ONSAAS who helps SaaS companies grow through strategic link building and SEO. Outside of work, she loves spending time in nature, especially hiking in the mountains.