Work Management Tool Comparison
Grist vs Monday
Unlike monday.com, Grist doesn’t stop at tasks. Connect your entire business – data, people, and processes – into one flexible platform built to scale with your needs.
What comes after Monday?
Monday is built for managing tasks. Grist is built for what comes next for your business.
What begins as a simple tracker often grows into something more – a CRM, a reporting system, or a full operational tool. With Grist, you don’t need to switch tools when your process matures. Add tables, views, logic, rules, custom widgets, and even full applications as your needs grow. No rebuilds. No compromises.
Find your ideal solution
Where Monday Shines
Task and project coordination with fast onboarding for teams of any size
Built-in views and boards like Kanban, Gantt charts, and calendars
Beginner-friendly UI and large template library for easy setup
Where Grist Shines
Relational database structure for clean and secure ingestion
Fine-grained access permissions and full ownership of your data
Deep customization and integration into unique workflows
Monday vs Grist for work management
| Monday | Grist | |
|---|---|---|
| Core functionality | Task-centric visual work/project management platform. | Relational spreadsheet-database hybrid. |
| Ideal for | Teams needing visual task/project tracking. Fast setup and wide team adoption. | Teams needing structured, secure data systems and all-in-one custom workflows. |
| Pricing | Free plan limited to 2 users; Pro plan starts at $16/user for core features. | Free plan with core features & AI Assistant. Paid plans start at $8/user. |
| Data structure | Flat task boards with linked items. | Fully relational database that links records across tables natively. |
| Flexibility | Prebuilt plug-and-play project views, visual customization. | Full control over layout, fields, & relationships. |
| Collaboration | Team-centric task updates, simple sharing and collaboration. | Real-time editing & per-user access filters. |
| Automation | No-code “when–then” automation rules. Large catalogue of major software integrations. | REST API. Webhooks. Integration partners (Zapier, n8n, and more). |
| Customization | Visual only. | Supports formulas, Python scripting, custom widgets. |
| Hosting & ownership | Cloud-only. | Self-hostable. open-source / open-core. SQLite-based. User-controlled data access. |
Who chooses Grist over Monday?
Teams building internal tools with unique workflows
Users who need relational databases for managing complex and dynamic datasets
Developers, analysts, and data-savvy teams
Organizations needing privacy, security, and flexibility in their solutions
“I love Grist. It’s crazy powerful. I still can’t believe what we’ve been able to achieve in it. It’s the dream that low-code was sold as for years – we can do incredible things in each column with Python and we can build our own widgets to run on those! Wild!”
Elliot Lee
User Researcher
“The more I use Grist, the more I LOVE it. I have been surveying self-hosted database GUI tools, and I was consistently disappointed with their shortcomings or bugginess. Grist is the first to have tilted the balance the other way.”
Stephen S.
Publications, Personal City Guides
“Grist has given us incredible flexibility to solve data problems and find solutions, whether it is for a small team at the district, or at scale with the entire district staff. We’re really excited about the different ways we can use it going forward.”
Director of Product
EdTech Company
“What I like about Grist the most is its focus. It appears simple, but it’s very powerful in a focused way. Grist has really improved our workflow and communication.”
Chris Scott
Co-founder in Digital Marketing
“If people spend some time learning a new tool they’ll have more power to do their work and research. I said to one of my students, ‘You will be very very happy using Grist because you are miserable using Excel!'”
Eduardo Dalcin, Ph.D.
Biodiversity Informatics Expert
“Most CRMs don’t work the way Grist works. Grist’s layouts are simple and do exactly what we need.”
Jennifer Bledsoe
IT Tech at Law Firm
“I recently discovered Grist after becoming frustrated with the limitations of traditional spreadsheets like Excel and Google Sheets. Grist has been a breath of fresh air, especially with its ability to handle structured data in a way that feels familiar to anyone with experience in relational databases, but with the added flexibility of Python.”
Will Bailey
Small Business Manager
Build on your own terms
Monday.com users can easily import their existing workflows from CSV files to start using Grist right away.
Grist’s incremental imports feature allows users to import new activity to existing data, and Grist intelligently combines it without creating duplicates or needing manual cleanup.
Pre-built templates
Jump right into Grist with these pre-built templates:
