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Best Notion Alternatives

Written by Camin McCluskey

Co-Founder & CTO

Edited by Steph Leung

Product & Operations Lead

Updated onMar 14, 2025
Notion has revolutionized how teams organize information with its flexible all-in-one workspace that combines notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. This versatile platform has gained popularity for its customizable interface and ability to adapt to various workflows. However, when it comes to specialized business needs, alternatives often provide more targeted solutions. Smartsheet offers superior portfolio management for complex, multi-project environments, while Airtable excels with data-intensive projects through its powerful database capabilities. For software teams, Jira delivers purpose-built agile development tracking that Notion can’t match. Client service businesses might find Paymo’s time tracking and invoicing features more valuable, and Monday.com stands out for traditional project management with its comprehensive reporting tools. While Notion remains an excellent general workspace, understanding these alternatives helps teams select the right tool for their specific requirements.

Best alternatives to Notion

For complex project portfolio management:

Smartsheet product logo

Smartsheet

Stackfix Rating:

6.8 / 10

Smartsheet stands out as a powerful choice for complex project portfolio management through its robust data handling, comprehensive reporting capabilities, and advanced resource management features. While Notion excels at documentation and customization, Smartsheet’s specialized portfolio management tools make it compelling for organizations juggling multiple complex projects. Its workload heatmaps provide clear visibility into team capacity, while its sophisticated dashboards offer real-time insights across project portfolios. The platform’s spreadsheet-based architecture, though initially challenging to master, enables deeper analysis and tracking of project interdependencies than Notion’s more freeform approach. For organizations prioritizing portfolio-level oversight and resource optimization, Smartsheet’s purpose-built features deliver significant value.

Jump to product

For data-intensive project management:

Airtable product logo

Airtable

Stackfix Rating:

7.3 / 10

Airtable excels over Notion for data-intensive project management through its superior data handling capabilities, robust reporting features, and advanced portfolio management tools. While Notion offers a flexible workspace, Airtable’s spreadsheet-first approach provides better data organization with customizable fields, rollup calculations, and cross-linking between databases. Its visual dashboards offer deeper insights into project metrics, and its portfolio management tools provide comprehensive progress tracking. For teams handling large datasets, Airtable’s faster loading times and structured data management make it the more efficient choice.

Jump to product

For agile software development tracking:

Jira product logo

Jira

Stackfix Rating:

6.2 / 10

While Notion offers flexibility and ease of use, Jira emerges as the superior choice for agile software development tracking with three compelling advantages. First, Jira’s native sprint reporting and agile-specific features provide comprehensive velocity charts and burndown reports, while Notion lacks these essential development metrics. Second, Jira’s task dependency management system offers bidirectional relationships and clear visibility of blocked tasks—critical for complex software development workflows. Finally, Jira’s automation capabilities include built-in templates for development-specific workflows like automatically creating Git branches when tasks move to ‘in progress.’ These specialized features make Jira the more robust platform for teams serious about agile software development.

Jump to product

For client service business management:

Paymo product logo

Paymo

Stackfix Rating:

5.9 / 10

Client service businesses will find Paymo’s specialized features more valuable than Notion’s general-purpose platform. While Notion offers extensive customization, Paymo excels with built-in time tracking, comprehensive invoicing capabilities, and an intuitive team scheduling module that directly addresses the unique needs of client service operations—tracking billable hours, managing client payments, and optimizing team capacity. Additionally, Paymo’s customer support ensures businesses get help quickly when managing critical client work.

Jump to product

For traditional project management with detailed reporting:

Monday.com product logo

Monday.com

Stackfix Rating:

7.5 / 10

Monday.com excels over Notion for traditional project management with detailed reporting through three key advantages. First, its native workload visualization tools enable managers to effectively balance team capacity and track project progress. Second, its robust reporting capabilities offer customizable dashboards with multiple visualization options for tracking metrics across projects. Finally, its automation capabilities feature an intuitive workflow builder and extensive pre-built templates that streamline project processes. While Notion lacks comprehensive reporting and native workload management, Monday.com’s purpose-built features make it the better choice for teams prioritizing detailed project tracking and reporting.

Jump to product

CM

Meet your expert: Camin McCluskey

Stackfix Co-Founder & CTO

Having worked as a software engineer and CTO in enterprise and startup environments, I've been on both sides of the software buying journey. I'm excited to help you find the right software for your business, as well as supporting our partners to communicate what makes their software unique.

Notion logo

Notion

Smartsheet logo

Smartsheet

Airtable logo

Airtable

Jira logo

Jira

Paymo logo

Paymo

Monday.com logo

Monday.com

Our rating
Functionality
6

Functionality

6/10

<p>Notion offers almost all of the functionality most companies will need. It Offers best-in-class inbuilt documentation, and added a lot of AI features in the past year that allows you to query your entire Notion workspace. It has also been rolling out many new features e.g. Notion calendar, forms, and Notion mail (coming soon).</p><p>That said, it’s still missing some features larger teams with many active projects might require, like advanced analytics, robust workflow automation, and time tracking. There’s room for improvement, but it’s evolving fast.</p>
8

Functionality

8/10

<p>Smartsheet has all the functionality that companies will need - including some more sophisticated functions required only my large companies. Smartsheet offers: excellent portfolio management features, cell history, strong automation and some nifty team capacity reporting features.</p>
7

Functionality

7/10

<p>Airtable offers most of the functionality that companies will need but lacks a few useful features. Users will benefit from strong workflow automations, dependencies, the ability to link tasks, projects, key metrics and company goals, forms which auto populate spreadsheets with responses and more. However, Airtable lacks in-real-time collaboration, the ability to create internal documents and some strong time-tracking features.</p>
9

Functionality

9/10

<p>Jira delivers nearly all the functionality that SMBs—and even enterprises—will need.</p><p>Its task and project management capabilities are incredibly powerful and flexible. You can customize Jira to fit virtually any project, even those with complex structures like five layers of sub-tasks, each with their own custom fields.</p><p>That said, Jira does have some gaps. It doesn’t natively offer features like invoicing, billing, or expense tracking, which other tools sometimes include. Plus, for built-in docs or wikis, you’ll need to use its sister product, Confluence.</p>
6

Functionality

6/10

<p>Paymo focuses on delivering the core set of functionality required for managing client work. It offers excellent time tracking, invoicing and accounting functionality. However, the focus on client projects mean Paymo lacks some common project management functionality, such as inbuilt documentation, building automated workflows, adding custom fields or any meaningful analytics (besides time reports).</p>
7

Functionality

7/10

<p>Monday.com offers almost all the functionality most companies need to manage tasks and projects effectively. It has rich functionality natively such as robust automation, customizable forms, time-tracking, analytics, and even invoice creation. This allows teams to streamline their workflows and enhance productivity without relying heavily on external integrations.</p><p>However, it's missing the advanced customizability and automation that larger teams require to manage complex task and project relationships e.g. creating multiple layers of subtasks, meaningful project portfolio management functionality and sophisticated workflows with branches.</p>
Ease of Use
6

Ease of Use

6/10

<p>For those new to Notion, its blank canvas, endless customization options, and sheer number of templates can feel a bit overwhelming at first. Setting up a project management system from scratch might take a few days to figure out—but once you get past that initial learning curve, Notion becomes incredibly intuitive and user-friendly.</p><p>Creating new projects, documents, and tasks is lightning-fast, and there are quick keyboard shortcuts for almost everything, from adding new blocks to navigating between pages. Once you’re up to speed, Notion feels like second nature.</p>
5

Ease of Use

5/10

<p>Smartsheet is designed to function in a similar way to a spreadsheet. If you are comfortable using these or have used them before, learning your way around Smartsheet will be easier. However, even if this is the case, processes can be a bit fiddley compared to other project management tools. We estimate that average start-up employee and would require a few days and some guidance before being able to use the product fluently.</p><p><br></p><p>Key information and processes are generally easy to find but not always easy to perform.</p>
6

Ease of Use

6/10

<p>Airtable is generally easy to use. We estimate that an average start-up employee would require around half a day and some guidance to proficiently use all key functionalities of the platform. The notable exceptions to this are the extensions required to make custom reports and creating subtask in table view.</p><p><br></p><p>Airtables key processes are easy to find and do not require many clicks to reach. Some more complex processes like customizing the UI itself can be more hidden.</p>
4

Ease of Use

4/10

<p>Compared to other project management tools, we find Jira complex to navigate. The interface is packed with features and options, which can make it overwhelming and unintuitive—especially for new users. The learning curve is steep, and it can take weeks for team members to get fully comfortable.</p><p>For example, even for simple projects, there are multiple configuration pages to manage: settings for the entire project, specific project views, built-in fields, custom fields—you name it. It’s powerful, but all these layers can quickly become confusing.</p>
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p>Due to its limited functionality, Paymo is rather easy to navigate. Key workflows such as tracking time, creating new tasks and projects are straightforward and intuitive. However, there are some UX quirks. For example, you can only manage task dependencies in the portfolio view, and there are unfamiliar terms here and there e.g. an unexplained "booking" tab that's by default in every tab.</p>
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p>Monday.com offers a generally user-friendly experience, with an abundance of templates and smooth onboarding that lowers the barrier of entry for non-technical, new users.</p><p>However, when delving into more advanced features, the platform's ease of use starts to wane. There's foreign terminology such as adding a "Problem Framing" quickies block to your docs, or enabling "battery view" for your board. The interface can also become cluttered as you use projects scale and more features are utilised.</p><p>For the average SMB employee, it might take 1-2 days with minimal guidance to become comfortable with the platform.</p>
Look and feel
7

Look and feel

7/10

<p>Out of the box - Notion has a clean, modern, uncluttered interface. But you have the power to completely customise the look and feel of Notion to make it look visually stunning.</p><p>The main drawback is that Notion suffers from slow load times, especially as your workspace grows. Pages can take 3–4 seconds to load, especially if you have a lot of data and files stored&nbsp;in Notion.&nbsp;It’s something to keep in mind if you plan on using Notion as your all-in-one company operating system, or as your usage scales.</p>
6

Look and feel

6/10

<p>Smartsheet lacks colour and is generally a bit plain to look at. That being said, the software is visually acceptable and for the most part has fast loading times (~1 second). When first creating a new project or workspace, loading times can be slower (upwards of 6 seconds) - but this is a one off occurrence.</p>
8

Look and feel

8/10

<p>Airtable has a more customizable UI than most. You can alter colour and some layout features vai their interface designer. However, inevitably, UIs will not differ so much from one user to the next. They could all still have more sleep designs and more colour.</p><p><br></p><p>Loading times are fast (1 second per page).</p>
5

Look and feel

5/10

<p>While Jira has made strides in design and usability with recent updates, it still feels a bit dated compared to more modern Project Management tools like Linear. Customizing the UI is pretty limited, so you’re mostly stuck with the default look and feel.</p><p>Our main gripe, though, is page load times. At 2–3+ seconds per page, things can feel sluggish—and this gets gets compounded as your projects and teams grow. It's a frustration that can niggle you every day.</p>
6

Look and feel

6/10

<p>Although not visually stunning, Paymo's interface is uncluttered and functional. However, we have noticed that Paymo's pages load slowly at times (3+ seconds).</p>
7

Look and feel

7/10

<p>Monday.com emphasizes visual management with bright, engaging colours and customisable icons. While this visual approach makes it easy to understand project statuses at a glance, it could also quickly get cluttered and busy, Page loads are quick (1-2 seconds).</p>
Customisability
9

Customisability

9/10

<p>Notion gives you endless customization options to shape it exactly how you want.</p><p>You can mix and match blocks—pages, databases, calendars, and project views—and even connect them with third-party tools to create a setup that fits your workflow, system, or use case perfectly. You’re in control of everything: how tasks and projects are organized, the structure of your internal docs and wikis, the platform’s overall look and feel, and even the layout of individual pages.</p><p>That said, Notion isn’t without its limits. It falls short on advanced reporting features and can’t handle workflows that require complex automation, like branching or conditional logic.</p>
8

Customisability

8/10

<p>Smartsheet has some very strong customisation features. The most impressive being their forms which are customisable in almost every way - from question type to, condition logic, to cosmetics etc. Automation is also nicely customisable with a vast array of action and trigger functions, as well as conditional logic available. Smartsheet could benefit from a few more task views - other similar project management tools offer far more!</p>
8

Customisability

8/10

<p>Airtable has strong customizability. Automations integrate with third parties and offer a decent selection of action/ trigger functions, as well as, conditional logic. Highly customizable forms also allow for conditional logic, many answer types and cosmetic customizations like banners, logos and colours. Out-of-the-box reporting extensions also allow for customizable reports.</p>
10

Customisability

10/10

<p>We find Jira to be impressively, and overwhelmingly, customisable.</p><p>You can customise almost anything you can think of - custom task types, workflows, specialized screens, validation rules, and more. For ultimate flexibility, there’s even Jira’s own query language (JQL), which lets you search and filter issues with incredible precision.</p>
3

Customisability

3/10

<p>While Paymo allows for some customisation e.g. switching between project views, applying filters to customise project views - its focus on client projects limits further customisability. Every project must be structured around clients and time budget. Also, you're unable to add any custom fields or tags, or create custom reports.</p>
8

Customisability

8/10

<p>As an all-in-one tool, Monday.com offers a high level of customizability suitable for most teams, allowing you to tailor boards with custom columns, statuses, and automation without needing to code. Individual cards can be anything from tasks, projects to deals, employees and client. However, it doesn't match the advanced customization capabilities of tools like JIRA —such as creating multiple layers of subtasks or defining complex task relationships—which may limit larger teams managing complex projects.</p>
Ease of Setup
7

Ease of Setup

7/10

<p>Notion offers a self-serve free trial and lets you purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, helped by very extensive library of templates. A full setup shouldn’t take more than a day or two, even for more complex use cases.</p>
8

Ease of Setup

8/10

<p>Offers a self-serve free trial and allows purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, because it has a very rich library of templates. Full setup should take a day or two at most.</p>
8

Ease of Setup

8/10

<p>Offers a self-serve free trial and allows purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, because it has a very rich library of templates. Full setup should take less than a day.</p>
4

Ease of Setup

4/10

<p>Jira offers a self-serve free trial and lets you purchase without dealing with sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks or subtasks takes about 30–40 minutes, which can feel a bit more confusing compared to other tools. That said, its rich library of templates helps streamline the process.</p><p>Be prepared, though—a full setup will likely take at least a few days, especially if you’re customizing it for more complex workflows.</p>
6

Ease of Setup

6/10

<p>Offers a self-serve free trial and allows purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, but it lacks a rich library of templates. Full setup should take less than a day.</p>
9

Ease of Setup

9/10

<p>Offers a self-serve free trial and allows purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, because it has a very rich library of templates. Full setup should take less than a day.</p>
Customer Support
5

Customer Support

5/10

<p>Notion's support team can only be contacted via email, and this option is very hidden away on their site. From our experience, responses take about a full business day—not the fastest—but the agents are friendly and genuinely helpful. On the bright side, Notion’s help center is top-notch, with detailed, high-quality documentation that can often solve your questions without needing to wait for support.</p>
6

Customer Support

6/10

<p>Personalised support is available via email and and in-app chat. The in-app chat feature is not something to rely on too much as responses are not always fast. Email agents are very accommodating, useful and fast (relies in less than 6 hours).&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Self-serve materials are strong but not exceptional. They do not have 'how to's' for every feature. This is likely to drive traffic to their paid 'Smartsheet University' where they charge to teach you basic, intermediate and advanced functions in Smartsheet.&nbsp;</p>
7

Customer Support

7/10

<p>An in-app chatbot is useful for filtering through self-serve material, but if you want to talk to a real human you need to do this via email (not that forms can be submitted via email) and agents will reply within 48 hours - but usually in less than 12 hours.</p><p><br></p><p>Airtable's self-serve materials are excellent. Articles, videos and seminars all have excellent depth and quality. These can all be access in app.</p>
4

Customer Support

4/10

<p>We find that Jira's support leaves a lot to be desired. Atlassian (the maker of Jira) nudge users toward self-service options like documentation and community forums, which can be frustrating when you need quick, direct help. Even when you reach out for support, the experience can be hit-or-miss—especially if you’re a smaller customer without a premium support plan.</p>
9

Customer Support

9/10

<p>Paymo offers in-app live chat with their C-suite members. The Paymo team almost always responds within minutes, and helpful and patient. You can also tell that the team is open and responsive to customer feedback. You can also easily access Paymo's help centre within the live chat widget, which is a plus.</p>
7

Customer Support

7/10

<p>Monday.com offers personalised live chat within the platform. When contacted, it was extremely quick to connect with an agent who was decently helpful - although there still seems to be a tendency to send us Help Centre articles. Self-help resources on their Help Centre are high-quality and extensive.</p>
Integratability
6

Integratability

6/10

<p>Notion offers 110 integrations with a decent range of third-party tools, covering areas like automation, analytics, and collaboration. However, it’s missing some key integrations in commonly needed categories—there’s no native support for customer support tools, calendars, or email platforms.</p><p>That said, Notion does provide an API, so you can build custom integrations if you have specific needs.</p>
7

Integratability

7/10

<p>Smartsheet offers integrations with most third-parties that companies will need. However, some notable exceptions are Notion, Github and Zendesk.</p><p><br></p><p>Smartsheet also offers can API that allows teams to build custom integrations where necessary.</p>
8

Integratability

8/10

<p>Airtable only offers 36 native integrations which pails in comparison to other project management software - like Clickup or Asana. However, most of the big names are covered - like Jira, Github, Slack etc. Some integrations also include automations - e,g. sending messages in slack or creating a weekly digest in google documents.</p><p><br></p><p>Airtable also offer an API allowing users to build integrations where necessary.</p>
9

Integratability

9/10

<p>Jira, powered by Atlassian, has a thriving app marketplace with thousands of plugins. If there’s a feature you need that Jira doesn’t offer natively, chances are there’s a third-party app for it. Plus, Jira provides an API, giving you the flexibility to build custom integrations when needed.</p>
3

Integratability

3/10

<p>Paymo only has 14 pre-built integrations. While this list includes Google Calendar, Zapier and Slack, it's missing a lot of common integrations with tools from categories like customer support, sales, analytics etc. However, it does offer an API for custom integrations.</p>
9

Integratability

9/10

<p>Monday.com has a vibrant app marketplace with hundreds of plugins and integrations with the most relevant third party apps (e.g. CRM, marketing, developer tools etc). Its standout feature is its pre-built automation templates with most of these apps, which can be added with one-click. It also has an API for custom integrations.</p>
Ease of Migration
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>Notion makes exporting easy with a self-serve option—there’s an export button on every page, so you can quickly grab what you need. For more advanced needs, you can also export data using their API.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>Key data and custom reports are available self-serve to export to a CSV file.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>Exports of key and custom data and reports are available self-serve via a CSV file.</p>
5

Ease of Migration

5/10

<p>Migrating away from Jira can be a bit of a headache. Exporting data isn’t exactly seamless, and you’ll likely need to spend time cleaning and reformatting it before it’s usable in another tool. Custom fields, workflows, and issue types often don’t have direct equivalents elsewhere, which can lead to data loss or tricky mapping processes. It’s definitely something to plan for if you’re considering switching.</p>
4

Ease of Migration

4/10

<p>It seems like you're only able to export invoices and your list of projects + clients via self-serve. There doesn't seem to be any easy way to export your tasks &amp; task content. However, this may be doable via Paymo's API.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>While you can self-serve export data to formats like Excel, not all information—such as activity logs or certain file attachments—transfers seamlessly. Like other PM tools, custom fields and complex workflows might require manual rebuilding in the new platform, and these limitations can complicate migration efforts for teams with intricate setups.&nbsp;</p>

Smartsheet: Notion alternative for complex project portfolio management

Smartsheet product logo
Smartsheet

Stackfix Rating:

6.8 / 10

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Starting at

$12

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Smartsheet stands out as a powerful choice for complex project portfolio management through its robust data handling, comprehensive reporting capabilities, and advanced resource management features. While Notion excels at documentation and customization, Smartsheet’s specialized portfolio management tools make it compelling for organizations juggling multiple complex projects. Its workload heatmaps provide clear visibility into team capacity, while its sophisticated dashboards offer real-time insights across project portfolios. The platform’s spreadsheet-based architecture, though initially challenging to master, enables deeper analysis and tracking of project interdependencies than Notion’s more freeform approach. For organizations prioritizing portfolio-level oversight and resource optimization, Smartsheet’s purpose-built features deliver significant value.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Notion vs. Smartsheet.

Pros

  • Exceptional Portfolio Management

  • Highly Customizable Forms

  • Advanced Automation Capabilities

  • Comprehensive Visual Dashboards

  • Robust Time Tracking

Cons

  • Basic User Interface

  • No Multiple Assignees

  • Steep Learning Curve

  • Restricted View Options

Compare all Project Management toolsRead the full review

Airtable: Notion alternative for data-intensive project management

Airtable product logo
Airtable

Stackfix Rating:

7.3 / 10

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$0

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Airtable excels over Notion for data-intensive project management through its superior data handling capabilities, robust reporting features, and advanced portfolio management tools. While Notion offers a flexible workspace, Airtable’s spreadsheet-first approach provides better data organization with customizable fields, rollup calculations, and cross-linking between databases. Its visual dashboards offer deeper insights into project metrics, and its portfolio management tools provide comprehensive progress tracking. For teams handling large datasets, Airtable’s faster loading times and structured data management make it the more efficient choice.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Notion vs. Airtable.

Pros

  • Exceptional Project Portfolio Management

  • Powerful Workflow Automation

  • Highly Customizable

  • Strong Integration Capabilities

Cons

  • Cumbersome Subtask Management

  • No Internal Documentation Capabilities

  • Absence of Time Tracking

  • No Task Creation from Forms

Compare all Project Management toolsRead the full review

Jira: Notion alternative for agile software development tracking

Jira product logo
Jira

Stackfix Rating:

6.2 / 10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
While Notion offers flexibility and ease of use, Jira emerges as the superior choice for agile software development tracking with three compelling advantages. First, Jira’s native sprint reporting and agile-specific features provide comprehensive velocity charts and burndown reports, while Notion lacks these essential development metrics. Second, Jira’s task dependency management system offers bidirectional relationships and clear visibility of blocked tasks—critical for complex software development workflows. Finally, Jira’s automation capabilities include built-in templates for development-specific workflows like automatically creating Git branches when tasks move to ‘in progress.’ These specialized features make Jira the more robust platform for teams serious about agile software development.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Notion vs. Jira.

Pros

  • Extremely Configurable

  • Transformative Project Templates

  • Extremely Sophisticated Task Management

  • Powerful Workflow Automation

  • Extensive Integration Ecosystem

Cons

  • Complex to Navigate

  • Dated User Interface

  • Subpar Customer Support

Compare all Project Management toolsRead the full review

Paymo: Notion alternative for client service business management

Paymo product logo
Paymo

Stackfix Rating:

5.9 / 10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Client service businesses will find Paymo’s specialized features more valuable than Notion’s general-purpose platform. While Notion offers extensive customization, Paymo excels with built-in time tracking, comprehensive invoicing capabilities, and an intuitive team scheduling module that directly addresses the unique needs of client service operations—tracking billable hours, managing client payments, and optimizing team capacity. Additionally, Paymo’s customer support ensures businesses get help quickly when managing critical client work.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Notion vs. Paymo.

Pros

  • Comprehensive Client Billing System

  • Strong Team Workload Management

  • Excellent Customer Support

  • Effective Portfolio Management

  • Exceptional Time Tracking Capabilities

Cons

  • Poor Task Management Functionality

  • Weak Customization Options

  • Limited Integration Capabilities

  • Limited Reporting Capabilities

  • Poor Data Export Options

Compare all Project Management toolsRead the full review

Monday.com: Notion alternative for traditional project management with detailed reporting

Monday.com product logo
Monday.com

Stackfix Rating:

7.5 / 10

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Starting at

$0

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Monday.com excels over Notion for traditional project management with detailed reporting through three key advantages. First, its native workload visualization tools enable managers to effectively balance team capacity and track project progress. Second, its robust reporting capabilities offer customizable dashboards with multiple visualization options for tracking metrics across projects. Finally, its automation capabilities feature an intuitive workflow builder and extensive pre-built templates that streamline project processes. While Notion lacks comprehensive reporting and native workload management, Monday.com’s purpose-built features make it the better choice for teams prioritizing detailed project tracking and reporting.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Notion vs. Monday.com.

Pros

  • Powerful but intuitive workflow automation

  • Comprehensive integratability

  • Granular reporting and visualization

  • Exceptional workload visualization

  • Extensive templates that reduce setup time

Cons

  • Limited portfolio management

  • Lacks advanced task management features

Compare all Project Management toolsRead the full review

How we test products

With so many Project Management tools on the market, we focus on identifying the best options for small and midsize businesses. Our evaluation process reflects real-world usage, prioritizing functionality, ease of use, and overall value. Here’s how we do it:

Functionality

Project Management software should help teams stay organized, track progress, and collaborate efficiently. We start by identifying key use cases—task management, workflow automation, resource allocation, reporting, and team collaboration—then test how well each platform supports these needs. Tools that provide essential features without unnecessary complexity score highest.

User Experience & Onboarding

A great Project Management tool should be easy to adopt and navigate. We test each platform’s interface by accessing core features without prior training and track onboarding time—from account setup to managing the first project. Platforms that require extensive setup or technical expertise lose points.

Collaboration & Workflow Automation

Effective project management requires seamless collaboration. We evaluate built-in communication tools, task dependencies, automation workflows, and team notifications. Platforms that reduce manual effort and improve team efficiency score highest.

Integrations & Compatibility

Project Management software must integrate smoothly with other business tools, such as CRMs, file storage solutions, and communication platforms. We test how well each product connects with essential business systems and assess whether native integrations or third-party connectors are required.

Pricing & Value

We compare pricing across competitors, analyzing what each plan includes and whether critical features are locked behind paywalls. Hidden costs—such as per-user fees, premium automation features, or required enterprise plans—are factored into our assessment. Platforms that offer strong core functionality at a fair price score highest.

Stackfix’s Fit Score

All of these factors contribute to Stackfix’s Fit Score, a proprietary ranking system that measures how well each Project Management tool aligns with a buyer’s needs. It combines two key elements:

  • Requirements Met – How many buyer requirements the software fulfills
  • Stackfix Rating – Our expert assessment of the software’s overall quality, usability, and value

The result? A clear, data-driven recommendation that helps businesses choose the right Project Management software—without hours of trial and error.

FAQs

What is a Project Management tool?

A project management tool is a software application that helps teams plan, organize, and track their work. It’s a centralised hub where everyone can collaborate, manage tasks, and keep projects moving smoothly. The key features of a Project Management tool usually include:

  • Task Management: Create, assign, and track tasks to ensure everyone knows what needs to be done and by when. This helps keep projects on schedule and ensures accountability.
  • Project Planning: Use calendars, timelines, or Gantt charts to map out milestones and deadlines. Visual planning helps organize tasks and spot potential delays early.

What should I consider when buying Project Management software?

Choosing the right Project Management software can make or break your team’s productivity and collaboration—so it’s essential to find one that fits your workflow, integrates with your existing tools, and aligns with your budget. Here are the key factors to consider before making your decision.

  1. Your requirements. It's important to first define what you need the project management tool to accomplish. Consider the types of projects you want to track – whether you need to manage all projects across the company, including departments like HR and sales, or focus on specific types of projects. This decision will directly influence the features and level of customization you require.
  2. Ease of use. Look for an interface that your team will actually like and use. A cluttered or overly complex interface can overwhelm less experienced teams, meaning all those fancy features go to waste. That’s why Stackfix gives every project management tool an ‘Ease of Use’ rating, so you can quickly see which ones are intuitive and user-friendly. Click into each product above to find the right fit for your team.
  3. Workflows and integrations.Take stock of your current workflows and the tools you use. You may want to connect the project management tool with your existing tools such as Google Calendar for time blocking, customer support platforms, design and engineering tools, and Slack for updates
  4. Cost. Many project management tools offer seductive free plans, but it's essential to check if the free plan includes the features you need. Additionally, consider how pricing scales as your team grows to avoid unexpected expenses down the line. Factor in setup costs and feature limitations to ensure the tool remains cost-effective as your usage increases.
  5. Customer support. This is one of those things you don’t think about—until you really need it. If something goes wrong during setup or day-to-day use, will the vendor be there to help? Look at response times, availability (24/7 or just business hours?), and self-serve resources like help centers or community forums. To make this easier, Stackfix rates every project management tool on customer support. Click into each product above to see how they stack up.


What are the common mistakes to avoid when buying Project Management software?

Avoiding common pitfalls when choosing Project Management software can save you time, money, and workflow frustrations. Here are some of the biggest mistakes startups make—and how to avoid them.

  1. Falling into the “all-in-one” trap: A lot of project management tools boast about being all-in-one solutions, but this often means they can be bloated and clunky. Depending on your specific needs, a more streamlined and focused tool might allow your team to move faster and use only the features that truly matter for your projects.
  2. Buying based on vendor popularity: The project management space is flooded with big names dominating through big marketing budgets (looking at you, ClickUp and Monday.com) While these popular tools are generally solid choices, ensure they’re the best fit for your use case, and has the features that you need.
  3. Over-optimizing for scalability: Sounds counterintuitive, right? But trying to pick a tool that can handle every possible future need can actually make things more complicated. Most* project management tools offer solid migration options and integrations, making it easy to switch if your needs change. Plus, unlike sales systems where migrating all client data is crucial, you usually don’t need to transfer every completed task or project. Instead of choosing a PM with a massive feature list you might never use, go for one that fits your current growth stage. A streamlined solution with the features you need now keeps things simple and efficient, and you can always upgrade as your team and projects expand.

How much does Project Management Software typically cost?

Several providers (like Asana, ClickUp, Notion, and Jira) offer free plans with core functionality, though these typically restrict user limits, advanced views, and automation capabilities.

For enterprise plans and above, you can expect to speak to sales for a bespoke price. These custom quotes typically factor in integration requirements, security needs, and advanced reporting capabilities. To skip the demo calls, be sure to check out our pricing calculator.

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