Every growing business hits the moment when sticky notes and email chains stop working. You need a project management tool.

But which one?

I’ve implemented all four major options for different clients. Here’s my honest assessment.

Asana

The Vibe

Asana feels mature and opinionated. It has a clear view of how work should flow and guides you toward it. If you like structure, Asana feels good. If you resist structure, Asana feels constraining.

What’s Good

Task management is excellent. Creating, assigning, and tracking tasks feels smooth. Dependencies, due dates, custom fields, it’s all there.

Views are well-designed. List view, board view, timeline view, workload view. Each is thoughtfully implemented.

Enterprise-ready. Portfolios, goals, reporting. Scales to larger organizations without feeling bloated for smaller ones.

Reliable. Asana just works. Rarely down. Few bugs. The experience is polished.

What’s Not Great

Expensive at scale. Premium is $11/user/month. Business is $25/user/month. For 30+ users, costs add up.

Opinionated structure. Projects, sections, tasks, subtasks. If this hierarchy doesn’t match how you think, you’ll fight it.

Content creation is limited. Asana is for tasks, not documents. If you need project documentation alongside tasks, you’ll need another tool.

Best For

Teams that want structured project and task management. Agencies, professional services, any team with repeatable workflows.

Price

• Basic: Free (limited features, up to 15 users)
• Premium: $11/user/month (timeline, workflow builder)
• Business: $25/user/month (portfolios, goals, approvals)

Monday

The Vibe

Monday is visual and flexible. It feels like a smart spreadsheet that became a project management tool. Less prescriptive than Asana, more customizable.

What’s Good

Visual interface. Color-coded statuses, easy-to-scan boards. People who think visually like Monday.

Flexibility. You can structure Monday however you want. Columns for anything. The “it’s basically a database” approach works for varied use cases.

Automations. Built-in automation for moving items, sending notifications, updating statuses. Easy to set up.

Dashboards. Pulling data from multiple boards into executive views is straightforward.

What’s Not Great

Can become chaotic. The flexibility that’s a strength becomes a weakness without discipline. Boards get messy.

Overwhelming. Lots of features, lots of options. New users can feel lost.

Pricing includes automation limits. The tier determines how many automations you can run monthly.

Performance with large datasets. Boards with thousands of items can get sluggish.

Best For

Visual thinkers who want to customize their setup. Marketing teams, operations teams, anyone tracking varied work types.

Price

• Free: Up to 2 users
• Basic: $9/seat/month (limited)
• Standard: $12/seat/month (timeline, calendar, integrations)
• Pro: $19/seat/month (time tracking, formula columns)

ClickUp

The Vibe

ClickUp is the “everything app.” It tries to be your project management tool, docs platform, time tracker, whiteboard, and more. This is either brilliant or exhausting depending on your perspective.

What’s Good

Features. Everything is in here. Task management, docs, whiteboards, goals, time tracking, chat. You might not need other tools.

Price. More generous free tier than competitors. Paid tiers are competitive.

Customization. Custom fields, views, and workflows for almost anything. You can bend ClickUp to work your way.

Active development. New features constantly. ClickUp moves faster than competitors.

What’s Not Great

Complexity. The “everything” approach means lots to learn. Onboarding takes longer.

Reliability issues. ClickUp has more bugs and outages than Asana or Monday. They’ve improved, but it’s still a concern.

Overwhelming for simple needs. If you just want basic task tracking, ClickUp is overkill.

Performance. Can be slower than competitors, especially with complex views.

Best For

Teams who want one tool to rule them all and are willing to invest in learning it. Remote teams who want docs + tasks + chat unified.

Price

• Free: Full feature access with limits
• Unlimited: $7/user/month
• Business: $12/user/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Notion

The Vibe

Notion is different from the others. It’s a workspace where you build what you need, not a pre-built project management tool. Some people love this. Others want something more structured.

What’s Good

Flexibility. Build exactly what you need. Knowledge base, project tracker, CRM, all in one. Databases are powerful.

Content + tasks together. Meeting notes, documentation, and tasks live side by side. Great for context.

Beautiful output. Notion pages look good. Sharing with clients or stakeholders feels professional.

Good free tier. Very usable without paying.

What’s Not Great

You build everything yourself. There’s no project management out of the box. You create it from databases and pages.

Learning curve. Understanding Notion’s database model takes time.

Task management is weaker. No native dependencies, limited automation, no resource management. Task tracking works but isn’t its strength.

Performance with scale. Large Notion workspaces can get slow.

Best For

Teams who want customisation over structure. Companies that value knowledge management alongside project tracking. Startups and creative teams.

Price

• Free: For personal use
• Plus: $10/user/month (unlimited blocks, file uploads)
• Business: $18/user/month (advanced permissions)

The Decision Framework

Choose Asana If:

• You want structured, professional-grade project management
• Your work involves repeatable projects and clear workflows
• You’re willing to pay for reliability and polish

Choose Monday If:

• You’re visual thinkers who like colour-coding
• You have varied work that doesn’t fit one structure
• Automations are important to you

Choose ClickUp If:

• You want to consolidate multiple tools
• You’re comfortable with complexity for power
• Price matters and you want the most features per dollar

Choose Notion If:

• You want flexibility to build exactly what you need
• Knowledge management is as important as task management
• You’re OK building systems from scratch

My Recommendations by Team Size

Under 10 people: Notion or ClickUp free tier. You don’t need complexity yet.

10-30 people: Any of these work. Choose based on work style. Asana if you want structure. Monday if you’re visual. ClickUp if you want everything.

30-100 people: Asana or Monday tend to scale better. ClickUp can work but requires discipline. Notion starts to strain.

100+ people: Asana Business or Monday Enterprise. These have the governance and reporting larger teams need.

The Real Answer

The best tool is the one your team will actually use.

Demo all of them. Get team input. Try the one that resonates. Use it for a month.

Switching between these tools is doable. Don’t agonize too long. Pick one, commit for 90 days, then evaluate. You’ll learn more from using it than from researching it.