Top 5 ClickUp Alternatives: Should You Click Elsewhere?

The best ClickUp alternative is monday.com. Compared to ClickUp, it provides a more user-friendly experience and a better range of core features, especially when it comes to collaboration tools.

And if you consider the fact monday.com came joint first in our independent research, scoring 4.6/5 overall, it’s clear why it tops today’s list.

But that doesn’t mean monday.com is perfect for your business.

For this article, our researchers thoroughly tested 14 different software, whittling them down to just five ClickUp competitors. They looked at specific criteria, such as Features, Pricing, and Usability, rating each platform out of five for each category.

By the end of the article, you’ll know exactly which software is right for your next project – whether you want to automate workflows or chat more easily with colleagues.

1. monday.com – The Best ClickUp Alternative

monday.com is the best ClickUp alternative on the market. In our research, it scored highly for Project Creation and Workflow (4.3/5), and Data Visualization (5/5), which are key elements for any powerful and user-friendly project management product.

It’s also easy to use. It gained 4.1/5 in our Usability testing, offering a great user-experience, while it boasts the top Customer Score of any platform we tested (4.5/5), which means it has the best customer reviews on sites like Trustpilot and Capterra.

Are there any monday blues? Sure. If you want comprehensive customer support, you’ll want to look elsewhere. It also lacks a ‘project progress’ feature. That said, we’d still pick monday.com as the best ClickUp competitor any day of the week.

monday.com vs ClickUp: Pricing

monday.com has five pricing tiers to choose from, including a free plan – like ClickUp. If you need more than 50 users, you’ll need to contact monday directly and get on the Enterprise plan. When billed annually, monday’s price plans are:

• Individual – free
• Basic – $9 per user, per month
• Standard – $12 per user, per month
• Pro – $19 per user, per month
• Enterprise – custom

Is monday.com really ClickUp’s Best Equivalent?

Both platforms offer great features. But unlike ClickUp, monday.com has strong collaboration tools, including a more intuitive whiteboard feature. However, ClickUp has better customer support options available, including 24/7 support and live chat, which monday.com doesn’t offer. It’s a close match, with both platforms scoring 4.6/5 overall in our testing.

2. Smartsheet – Best for Ease of Use

Smartsheet is a user-friendly platform with a spreadsheet-like layout, gaining the best Usability score (4.3/5) in our research. That means it’s super simple to use, especially if you’re familiar with Excel or Google Sheets.

Does this come at cost? Yes, an expensive one. We gave Smartsheet 3.3/5 for Pricing in our research, making it one of the more costly options we tested. There are better value software out there, such as monday.com, which scored 3.9/5 in the same category.

Smartsheet vs ClickUp: Pricing

Smartsheet has only three pricing tiers, ranging from $7 per user, per month to $25 per user, per month annually, compared to ClickUp’s five plans. And unlike ClickUp, there is no free plan. When billed annually, Smartsheet pricing plans are:

• Pro – $7 per user, per month
• Business – $25 per user, per month
• Enterprise – custom

Is Smartsheet really ClickUp’s Best for Ease of Use Equivalent?

Smartsheet is easier to use than ClickUp, providing a bunch of user-friendly tools and a spreadsheet-like interface. However, ClickUp is far better value for money with its impressive free plan, and paid plans from just $5 per user, per month. Smartsheet is still an excellent all-rounder, gaining 4.5/5 overall in our testing, falling just behind ClickUp (4.6/5).

3. Asana – Best for Creating Automations

Asana is another feature-rich ClickUp competitor, scoring 5/5 for Data Visualization, and 4.4/5 for Task Management. Asana also makes it easy to chat with colleagues remotely. Although, what really stood out was its intuitive automation builder that turns time-consuming tasks into a breeze.

Unfortunately, Asana doesn’t offer certain advanced features such as personal time tracking, or billing and invoicing tools. And you can’t use its superb data visualization tools on its free plan. All things considered, though, Asana would be a user-friendly ClickUp alternative if you aren’t desperate for those high-end features.

Asana vs ClickUp: Pricing

Like ClickUp, Asana offers a generous free plan – except for the fact you can’t access its data visualization tools. It also has two paid plans, plus a custom option for larger businesses. When billed annually, Asana’s price plans are:

• Basic – Free
• Premium – $10.99 per user, per month
• Business – $24.99 per user, per month
• Enterprise – custom

Overall, Asana is reasonably priced, which is why we gave it a middle-of-the-road Pricing score of 3.9/5.

Is Asana really ClickUp’s Best Equivalent for Automation?

Asana is far more user-friendly than ClickUp when it comes to automating tasks. It also offers a free plan, like ClickUp. However, unlike Asana, ClickUp offers advanced features like time tracking and represents excellent value for money. That said, Asana still scored an impressive 4.5/5 overall in our testing.

4. Wrike – Best for Project Tracking

Wrike has one standout strength: it makes it really easy to track and manage projects. It also scored well in our  Usability (4/5) and Data Visualization categories (5/5), gaining an overall score of 4.4/5 from our researchers.

However, Wrike has more than one weakness. It’s not the best software for collaboration features – it lacks a whiteboard and document editing tool – and it’s one of the most expensive options on our list. Then there’s the dismal customer support options, which scored 1.8/5.

Wrike vs ClickUp: Pricing

Wrike doesn’t offer a monthly billing option, making it a big commitment for startups and small businesses on a tight budget. However, Wrike offers a free plan and custom plan, just like ClickUp. The Wrike price plans are:

• Free
• Professional – $9.80 per user, per month
• Business – $24.80 per user, per month
• Enterprise – custom

Is Wrike really ClickUp’s Best Equivalent for Project Tracking?

Wrike (4.4/5 overall) and ClickUp (4.6/5 overall) both scored 4/5 for Usability in our testing. However, ClickUp has stronger Task Management features and better value price plans, offering a more generous free plan than Wrike does.

5. Teamwork – Best for Collaboration

Teamwork, like the philosophy it’s named after, places great importance on working together. It gained the best Collaboration score (4/5) of all the apps we tested, making it an excellent ClickUp alternative for businesses that want to feel better connected while working remotely.

For instance, Teamwork offers Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and personal dashboards, allowing everyone to track projects and communicate from home. On the flip side, there are no automation features, which means there are other ClickUp competitors, such as monday.com, that can help streamline your tasks more easily.

Teamwork vs ClickUp: Pricing

We gave Teamwork 3.6/5 for Pricing. That’s because, while the price plans aren’t too expensive, you don’t get much bang for your buck in terms of features – especially compared to ClickUp. Teamwork does have a free plan, though, as well as three paid plans:

• Free Forever – $0
• Deliver – $9.99 per user, per month
• Grow – $17.99 per user, per month
• Enterprise – custom

Is Teamwork Really ClickUp’s Best Equivalent for Collaboration?

Teamwork has better collaboration features than ClickUp, including its project message board that ClickUp doesn’t offer, making it easier for your team to work together remotely. However, like ClickUp, Teamwork has no automation features. This means you should go for a different ClickUp alternative from Teamwork if you want to streamline workflows.

Is Choosing a ClickUp Competitor Really the Right Option for me?

ClickUp is an excellent product. Does that mean it’s for everyone? Of course not.

While monday.com scored equal points with ClickUp (4.6/5) in our research, it gained the highest combined Features score (4.2/5) of any platform we tested. Specifically, monday.com gained 3.8/5 for Collaboration features compared to ClickUp’s 3/5.

If you especially value communication and collaboration tools, such as miro-style whiteboards, you’ll want to pick monday over ClickUp. That’s because ClickUp’s collaboration tools could do with some work, scoring a meager 3/5.

As far as ClickUp competitors go, there’s no platform that comes close to monday.com – it’s versatile, user-friendly, and provides the industry’s best project creation and workflow features.

What’s The Best Free Alternative to ClickUp?

From our research, we know that the best free project management software is in fact ClickUp. No other platform offers a free option that comes close to ClickUp’s Free Forever plan. It allows unlimited users to create unlimited projects and spaces, offering Kanban boards and up to 100 Gantt charts. As the plan’s name suggests, it’s always free.

How Did We Find the Best Alternatives to ClickUp?

Here at Expert Market, we have an independent team of researchers that carries out data-driven analysis into all the topics we write about, including project management software. That team finds the best providers on the market, rigorously tests them first-hand, and collaborates with our team of expert writers in order to create research-based articles, including this top ClickUp alternatives article.

For our project management software category, our researchers tested 14 different platforms, from newbies like ClickUp to old timers like Jira. They put each software through their paces, comparing each one and rating them out of five in specific areas. Those research areas are:

• Usability – the user experience and simplicity of tasks
• Pricing – the software’s value for money and how much it’ll cost in the short or long-term
• Customer Support – the available customer support options
• Features – broken down into Task Management, Project & Management Workflow Creation, Data Visualization, and Collaboration features
• Customer Score – aggregate of consumer scores on sites like G2, Capterra, TrustRadius and Trustpilot