Think Projects as a monday.com alternative
Less to set up and maintain, for teams whose job is delivering projects.
Who this suits
Teams of three to fifteen who use monday.com as a project tool rather than as a database — lists of work, people, dates — and find they spend more time on boards, columns and automations than they would like. If monday's grid, formulas, dashboards and automation recipes are how your business runs, it is a good tool for that.
What your week would look like
- One layout, ready on day one. A project has messages, task lists, a board, a calendar, a timeline, files, a library and pages. There is nothing to build before you can start.
- A forecast finish date from estimates, dependencies, who is doing what and when people are away, which moves when something changes.
- Conversations that read like conversations — threads per project, with reply by email — rather than a column of updates on an item.
- Timeline, calendar, guests and time tracking on every plan.
- A weekly status update drafted for a person to send.
What you would keep: custom fields (text, number, date, choice, tick box and link — up to eight per project), assignees, dates, priorities and tags, comments on tasks, repeating tasks and dependencies, guests, Slack or Teams notifications, files on everything.
What it costs
| Feature | Think Projects | monday.com |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | Starter, $15 a month for up to 5 people | Basic, $9 per seat a month (monthly equivalent, billed annually) |
| The plan with a timeline, calendar and guest access | Every plan | Standard, $12 per seat a month (monthly equivalent, billed annually); the page displays a ten-seat total of $120 a month |
| Eight people, with a timeline | $32.50 a month (monthly equivalent, billed annually; Team, up to 15 people); $39 billed monthly | Not published for eight seats — see the note below the table |
| Time tracking | Every plan | Pro ($19 per seat a month, monthly equivalent billed annually) and above |
| Guests who can take part | Free and unlimited, invited to individual projects | Guest access from Standard; the pricing page does not say whether guests are charged. Read-only viewers are free and unlimited from Basic |
| Custom fields | 6 kinds, up to 8 per project | Many column types |
| Automations | Repeats, dependencies and templates; no recipe builder | Standard: 250 actions a month; Pro: 25,000 |
| Free plan | 14-day trial of everything | Up to 2 seats and 3 boards |
Why no eight-people figure: monday.com's page shows per-seat prices for annual billing and a total for ten seats ($120 a month on Standard). It does not show monthly billing prices or whether exactly eight seats can be bought, so we have not worked out a figure for eight people rather than guess. Figures from monday.com/pricing, read 7 September 2026, in US dollars. Think Projects in US dollars; pounds and euros.
Bringing your work with you
Export a board to Excel (board menu → Export board to Excel) and bring it into the import wizard as a spreadsheet: one item per row, and you tell the wizard which column is the task name, the group, the person and the dates. Updates, files, formulas and automations stay behind. Details on the switching page.
Where monday.com is the better choice
The grid with formulas and roll-ups; dashboards you compose yourself; the automation recipe builder; WorkForms; the app marketplace; native phone apps. For teams using monday as a lightweight database or CRM, monday is the better fit.
Try it with one board
Export one board, import it, and give the tasks estimates to see the forecast.
Want to try it on your own work? Every feature on every plan, a 14-day trial, no card needed — and guests are always free.
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