Pipedrive vs. monday.com: Choosing the best CRM for your business

Pipedrive and monday.com are powerful CRM tools that offer a range of pricing tiers to fit the needs of startups and solopreneurs up to large enterprise-sized sales organizations. In this guide, we compare the features, costs, and capabilities of both CRM platforms to help teams make the right choice for their business. 

Pipedrive vs. monday.com: Plans and pricing

Pipedrive and monday.com CRM platforms both offer a wide range of pricing plans that support small teams up to large sales organizations. While neither currency has free-forever plan options, monday.com’s website advertises that a free plan for two users is coming soon. However, it’s important to note that monday.com’s paid plans have a minimum seat requirement of three users.

Pipedrive offers five plans compared to monday.com’s four CRM plans. While Pipedrive is more expensive, the provider’s annual plans include up to 42% savings for an annual commitment compared to monday.com’s 18%. Moreover, Pipedrive includes more features in their lower cost tiers than monday.com, which levels out the cost differences significantly. 

Pipedrive plan summary

Pipedrive is an ideal CRM tool for businesses looking for a visual, easy-to-implement software solution for managing sales deals. As someone who has reviewed dozens of CRM platforms, few have a sleeker user interface and user-friendly experience. It’s also an excellent pick for teams seeking robust automation capabilities, a vast app integration marketplace, and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools on the higher tier plans. Furthermore, it’s a good option for companies that need customization features as it offers customizable pipelines, dashboards, reports, and user permissions.

monday.com plan summary

monday.com’s CRM solution is great for sales teams that have used monday.com’s work management software for project management and are ready to start using a dedicated CRM for managing sales deals. Furthermore, it’s a solid choice for growing sales organizations that anticipate the need to scale to higher level tiers as their needs advance, including workflow automations to reduce manual processes. Plus, monday.com’s customization capabilities are comprehensive, allowing teams to tailor unlimited sales pipelines and dashboards to meet their business needs. 

Pipedrive vs. monday.com: Sales pipeline functionality

Both providers are a solid choice for sales organizations that want to streamline their sales processes. Pipedrive offers a user-friendly platform that novice CRM users can use right away, although it lacks some of the customization options monday.com’s CRM plans provide. While it’s not exhaustive and more features are available, the table below showcases several of each software’s most valuable pipeline functionality features

Pipedrive sales pipelines

Regarding sales pipeline functionality features, Pipedrive is best for businesses that want a CRM tool that’s easy for users of all skill and experience levels to use out of the box. Furthermore, it’s a top-notch choice for teams that want custom user permissions, which you can only get on the expensive Enterprise plan with monday.com. It’s also better for companies that want the option to add lead scoring with the LeadBooster add-on without subscribing to a plan built for enterprise-level teams. 

monday.com sales pipelines

Monday.com’s CRM plan options are suitable for teams that want unlimited deals, pipelines, boards, and customization options. While the software is not difficult to use, it’s tailored to users who have some experience using task management or another CRM software tool and want to adopt a new solution with more customization capabilities. Moreover, it’s best for organizations that don’t need lead scoring features or custom permissions for users. 

Pipedrive vs. monday.com: Marketing features

Both Pipedrive and monday.com CRM’s software tools offer the most popular marketing features businesses expect in a CRM system. While neither is designed to be an all-in-one platform for managing sales and marketing without connecting other app integrations, they both offer the most crucial features: email templates, open and click tracking, two-way email sync, and mass emails. 

However, it’s important to note that monday.com does not have email scheduling or product catalogs. While it’s not exhaustive and more features may be available, the table below lists both providers’ most popular marketing capabilities. 

Pipedrive marketing features

When it comes to marketing tools and features, Pipedrive is a good option for businesses that need email scheduling and product catalogs. It’s also a great choice for teams that want their software to summarize emails to find trends and patterns in feedback from customers and prospects. Plus, this provider has a product catalog that makes it an excellent pick for teams that have multiple products and services to sell. Pipedrive also offers email campaigns and web visitor add-ons for companies that want to expand the CRM’s marketing functionality.  

monday.com marketing features

monday.com CRM is better suited for teams that want basic marketing features at a lower price point than Pipedrive. While this provider doesn’t offer email scheduling or a product catalog, businesses that don’t need those features or have additional software they already use for those needs can get the basics for a lower cost. Moreover, monday.com has an email generator on its Standard plan and above, which is affordable for most small businesses and helps sales representatives save valuable time in generating engaging sales emails. 

Pipedrive vs. monday.com: Dashboard customization

CRM dashboards include crucial real-time sales information for sales managers that’s easy to decipher, such as if the business is hitting sales goals, which sales reps are performing well, which products are services are generating the most revenue, and more. 

Both Pipedrive and monday.com CRM plans offer customizable dashboards to help sales leaders make data-backed decisions. The table below outlines key dashboard customization features offered by both providers. Note that this comparison focuses on their most widely used capabilities and may not encompass all available options.

Pipedrive dashboards

Pipedrive has powerful CRM dashboard customization features that allow teams to collaborate on multiple dashboards to help the team make decisions that affect sales and marketing strategies. It’s ideal for companies that have external stakeholders who need access to their CRM data because they can share a link that allows third parties to view CRM data in real time with one click. It’s also a great choice for sales managers who want to receive email notifications in their inbox at set intervals with the dashboards that matter most to them. 

monday.com dashboard

monday.com is the best option for sales leaders looking for a CRM solution with unlimited customizable dashboards, even on the most affordable plan tier. It’s also a top pick for teams that need the ability to collaborate on every dashboard. It’s best for sales managers who spend ample time in the CRM platform and don’t need notifications with direct links to the dashboards they view regularly.  

Pipedrive vs. monday.com: Ease of use

While Pipedrive’s CRM solution is made for ease of use, monday.com’s CRM tool is designed with customization in mind. That being said, Pipedrive is the clear winner when it comes to user-friendliness with single sign-on (SSO) on all plans, extensive AI tools, a web browser extension, meeting scheduler, and robust app integration marketplace. 

While not all-inclusive, the table below highlights the key features that make a CRM system user-friendly and easy to navigate. 

Pipedrive ease of use

Pipedrive’s CRM software truly shines in the ease of use category. It’s a fantastic option for sales teams with novice CRM users as well as advanced users who want to take advantage of automations and app integrations. The software is also ideal for users who don’t want to integrate any apps into the platform but want to use built-in features such as the web browser extension and meeting scheduler to streamline sales functions. 

Furthermore, the higher-tier plans are excellent for teams that want to utilize the AI email creation and summarization tools. Plus, the AI-powered sales assistant is a valuable tool for helping sales reps take the next best action with each sales deal in the pipeline. 

monday.com ease of use

monday.com has CRM plans that are better for teams needing vast customization features rather than those who need the most user-friendly experience. It’s also a good choice for those who only need a few integrations rather than a comprehensive marketplace. It’s designed for CRM users who are familiar with project or task management software and want a platform designed for sales optimization. Businesses that aren’t interested in AI features and CRM migration (importing data from another CRM) should opt for monday.com’s CRM tool. 

Pipedrive at a glance

Pipedrive

Base price:	Starting at $24.00 per user, per month*
Free trial length:	14 days
Free plan available:	No

More features from Pipedrive

While we’ve focused on the top features Pipedrive offers in each category in this guide, this CRM platform offers an array of additional valuable tools and add-ons, such as: 

• Deal rotting notifications: Users can receive notifications when a prospect has been idle in the CRM for some time. 
• Application programming interface (API) access: The REST API feature allows programmers to build custom functionalities without incurring additional charges.
• Contact mapping: The CRM offers a geographical visualization feature that displays contact locations so users narrow views by applying filters based on state, region, or country. 
• Multilanguage support: Users can access Pipedrive’s platform in 22 different languages.
• Projects add-on: Companies can add Kanban-style boards for project planning and task management on the Power plan and above. Teams on other plans can access this feature for an extra fee, starting at $6.70 per organization, per company, billed yearly.
• Smart Doc add-on: Sales document creation and client e-signing are available for Professional tier subscribers and higher. Users on Essential or Advanced plans can add this feature for $32.50 monthly per organization with annual billing.

monday.com

CRM base price:	$15.00 per user, per month
Free trial length:	14 days
Free plan:	Coming soon

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Sales cycle and forecasting
• Paid plans have unlimited customized pipelines, contacts, and boards
• Send quotes and invoices

Cons

• Paid plans require a minimum of three seats
• No free plan yet
• Lead scoring only comes with its most expensive Enterprise plan

Who is monday.com good for?

monday.com offers a CRM product that is ideal for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) needing a one-stop shop for managing most of their processes and interactions within a single platform. It has a large variety of tools in its arsenal to automate routine tasks, track real-time performance, and forecast future sales. For this reason, it’s especially helpful for sales-driven organizations.

Who shouldn’t use monday.com?

monday.com’s biggest hindrance is its per-seat pricing. If you’re a cash-strapped startup, paying per seat, rather than a set amount for the entire organization, can put a strain on finances as those costs add up. Similarly, if you’re a solopreneur or have a two-person team, its paid plans have a minimum seat spend of three users.

View Offer

at monday.com

More features from monday.com:

While this comparison guide explores the most prominent features, monday.com’s CRM capabilities extend further, offering a variety of valuable features and tools, such as: 

• Web to lead capture forms: Businesses can use monday.com to embed a form on their website to track web visitors’ information and add it to the CRM for outreach. 
• Quotes and invoices: On the Standard plan and above, users can generate unlimited customizable quotes and invoices to send customers. 
• Time tracking: On the Pro plan and above, sales managers can track time spent on each task to glean data on how to optimize sales efficiency and where automation workflows may be most appropriate. 
• Whiteboard collaboration: Team members can use an internal whiteboard within the CRM to collaborate in one place. 

So, should you choose Pipedrive or monday.com?

Both Pipedrive and monday.com CRM solutions offer powerful features for managing leads and closing deals. 

• Choose Pipedrive if: Your business needs an incredibly easy-to-implement software tool with comprehensive workflow automations, a giant app integration marketplace, and a visual sales pipeline. 
• Choose monday.com if: Your company is familiar with task management software and needs a solution for managing sales with robust customization capabilities and unlimited deals, leads, and companies. 
• Go with an alternative if: Your team doesn’t have the budget for a CRM solution and you need a free-forever CRM plan or you need more advanced software for very large enterprise teams. For free CRM plans, Bitrix24 and Freshsales, Zoho CRM, and HubSpot are excellent options. For enterprise teams with complex needs, Salesforce is a solid alternative. 

The takeaway 

Pipedrive and monday.com offer valuable CRM solutions for small to enterprise-sized companies seeking tools to streamline sales, reduce manual processes, close more deals, and retain loyal customers to build revenue. Pipedrive provides an extremely user-friendly interface that teams can get started with quickly and provides helpful AI features and automation to help teams close deals faster. 

monday.com’s CRM platform shines with vast customization capabilities as it can be tailored to meet the needs of nearly any business. To make the right choice for your business, test each platform with the 14-day free trial and gather feedback from team members to assess which suits your needs better. 

Frequently asked questions