How much does monday.com cost in 2026?

Basic: $9 per seat a month on annual billing ($12 billed monthly); Standard: $12 per seat a month on annual billing ($14 billed monthly); Pro: $19 per seat a month on annual billing ($24 billed monthly). Up to 2 seats, 3 boards and 3 docs. Checked October 26, 2026.

What is a cheaper alternative to monday.com?

ClickUp (Free Forever plan has unlimited members; paid plans from $7/user/mo billed yearly), Trello (Free for up to 10 collaborators; Standard $5/user/mo billed yearly), Microsoft Planner (Included in Microsoft 365 business plans, from $7/user/mo billed yearly). Imports monday.com boards directly, but the free plan has only 60 MB of storage and limited automations.

Work management boards and workflows

Should you build your own monday.com?

Q: Should you build your own monday.com?

Switch. monday.com Standard is $12 per seat per month, about $2,160 over 3 years for five people, and paid plans start at 3 seats. Trello Standard costs about $900 for the same team, and ClickUp’s free plan costs nothing and imports monday.com boards. Building your own boards-and-automations tool would cost about $3,600 over 3 years, so building loses.

Switch to Trello or ClickUp. Five seats on monday.com Standard cost $60 a month; Trello is $25 and ClickUp has a free plan.

SWITCH

Short answer

monday.com Standard is $12 per seat per month, about $2,160 over 3 years for five people, and paid plans start at 3 seats. Trello Standard costs about $900 for the same team, and ClickUp’s free plan costs nothing and imports monday.com boards. Building your own boards-and-automations tool would cost about $3,600 over 3 years, so building loses.

Buy for 3 years: $2,160
Build and run for 3 years: $3,565
Verdict: SWITCH

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Cheaper options

FreeClickUpFree Forever plan has unlimited members; paid plans from $7/user/mo billed yearlyImports monday.com boards directly, but the free plan has only 60 MB of storage and limited automations.CheaperTrelloFree for up to 10 collaborators; Standard $5/user/mo billed yearlySimpler boards and cards, so you give up custom columns and dashboards.Already includedMicrosoft PlannerIncluded in Microsoft 365 business plans, from $7/user/mo billed yearlyWorth a look if you already pay for Microsoft 365, but it is much lighter than monday.com.

monday.com pricing in 2026

Plan	Billed yearly	Billed monthly
Basic	$9/seat/mo	$12/seat/mo
Standard Typical	$12/seat/mo	$14/seat/mo
Pro	$19/seat/mo	$24/seat/mo

Free plan: Up to 2 seats, 3 boards and 3 docs

Paying too much? Basic at $9 is enough if you only need boards and unlimited items. Timeline and Gantt views, automations and guest access start at Standard.

Per seat, billed annually, in USD. monday.com’s page showed euro prices to our checker (EUR 9, 12 and 19), but the price data in the page itself lists the same amounts in USD, and two 2026 price guides agree. Paid plans need at least 3 seats. Checked October 26, 2026.

Run your own numbers

Defaults are a typical small team at $30/hour. Change anything.

If you buy monday.com

Plan

Seats

If you build it

Your time, $ per hour

Hours to build

Upkeep, hours per month

Hosting and services, $ per month

Buy

$2,160

Build

$3,565

Buying is about $1,405 cheaper over 3 years.

3-year totals. Building includes your time, upkeep, running costs and one month of an AI app builder ($25). Change any number to match your situation.

What you’d build

Boards with custom columns for status, person, date and numbers
Table, kanban and timeline views
Simple automations, such as notify when a status changes
Comments, file uploads and email notifications
A basic dashboard of counts by status

Our estimate for a small database, hosting and an email sending service.

What you’d give up

200+ templates and ready-made workflows
Timeline, Gantt and calendar views that work together
Automations and integrations (250 actions a month on Standard, 25,000 on Pro)
Mobile apps and guest access

Risks the price doesn’t show

Custom columns and viewsMedium

Filters, sorting and grouping across many column types take longer than they look.

AutomationsMedium

A rules engine that never double-fires or drops an event needs careful testing.

Real-time syncMedium

Several people editing one board at once is where homemade tools break.

When the verdict flips

Switch to BUY if your team already runs dashboards, CRM boards or heavy automations on monday.com that you can’t rebuild elsewhere. Switch to BUILD only if boards are part of your own product.

Sources

monday.com pricing · monday.com pricing, June 2026 (Automation Atlas) · monday.com pricing, Sept 2026 (PM World 360)

Build hours are our estimates for one person using an AI app builder. How we score. Spotted a wrong price? Tell us on X @BuildictHQ.

Related verdicts

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Switch to ClickUp or Trello. ClickUp’s free plan has no member cap, and Trello costs $5 a user against Asana’s $10.99.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,978
Build, 3 yrs: $2,725

ClickUp

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BUY

Buy it, or start on the free plan. At $7 a user, ClickUp costs far less than building even a slice of it.

Buy, 3 yrs: $1,260
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Jira

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BUY

Buy it, and start free. Jira costs nothing for up to 10 users, and Standard runs about $8 a user beyond that.

Buy, 3 yrs: $2,851
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