Monday vs Jira: which tool should you choose for better team project management?
Project management is no longer just about schedules and post-its, it has become a real science of workflow, boosted by the right tools. And when we talk about management tools to steer a development team, structure an agile project or view a dashboard in real time, two names keep coming up: monday.com and Jira.
But which is best suited to your needs? To the way you work together? To your business?
On the one hand, monday.com seduces with its intuitive platform, flexibility and automation features that transform day-to-day management. On the other, Jira remains a benchmark in software development, particularly for tracking sprints, managing backlogs or optimising an agile workflow.
👉 In this comprehensive comparison, we help you choose the management tool best suited to your teamwork. Interface, features, price, integrations, collaboration, performance monitoring... We go through it all.
What is Monday?
Overview of Monday
monday.com is an online work management tool that is transforming the way teams organise, plan and manage their projects. Originally conceived as a visual alternative to Excel, the software has rapidly evolved into a complete project management platform, popular with marketing, sales and HR teams, as well as software development teams.
Its DNA? An ultra-visual, modular approach to task management. In fact, we work using tables, which can be customised ad infinitum to track the status of projects, manage deadlines, allocate resources or automate repetitive processes.
🎯 With over 180,000 customers worldwide (including Uber, Carrefour and Renault), monday.com has established itself as an accessible, powerful cloud solution that is above all suited to all levels of digital maturity, from agile SMEs to large, structured businesses.
Monday's main features
At the heart of monday.com are a series of powerful, intuitive features designed to simplify project management while offering a high level of customisation, including :
- customisable dashboards to see the progress of your projects at a glance, thanks to multiple views (Kanban, Gantt, calendar, timeline, classic table, etc.) ;
- task management: assign, schedule, track... every task can be traced, commented on and integrated into a clear workflow;
- Code-free automation: create automation rules to save time;
- time and performance tracking: analyse your workloads, deadlines and budgets and generate reports in just a few clicks;
- collaboration tools: comments, mentions, shared files, notifications... everything you need to make teamwork easier;
- a rich integration centre: over 200 integrations with tools such as Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, GitHub and Jira;
- ready-to-use templates: manage your projects faster thanks to pre-designed templates for agile management, sprints, marketing campaigns, product roadmaps, etc.
monday.com
Advantages and disadvantages of Monday
monday.com's appeal lies in its simplicity, but it is not suitable for every situation. Like any management tool, it has its strengths... and its limitations, depending on the expectations of each project team.
✅ The tool stands out for :
- its modern, intuitive interface, ideal for non-technical teams who want to get to grips with the tool without extensive training ;
- its great flexibility and adaptability to a marketing campaign, an agile project or a product roadmap;
- its powerful, accessible automation, which saves a considerable amount of time on repetitive tasks;
- fluid collaboration with comments, notifications, file sharing, etc;
- Extensive customisation of views and workflows, enabling each team to structure its workspace in its own way;
- its highly responsive customer support (chat, email, clear knowledge base).
❌ Some teams, particularly developers, can quickly reach the limits of monday.com in a more technical or structured context because of :
- the lack of advanced features such as fine-grained management of sprints or tickets ;
- costs can rise quickly for large teams;
- limited offline functionality;
- limited automation depending on the plan chosen, which sometimes means that you have to scale up faster than expected;
- too many features for small projects.
What is Jira?
Overview of Jira
Developed by Atlassian, Jira is project management software historically designed for software development teams. Today, it is one of the most widely used tools in the world for orchestrating agile projects, planning sprints, tracking tickets or supervising an entire technical workflow.
Its strength? An ultra-structured, development-oriented approach, with a high degree of workflow customisation and native integration with Confluence, Bitbucket, GitHub or Slack. Whether using Scrum, Kanban or SAFe, Jira adapts to all agile frameworks. More than 100,000 companies worldwide use it (Airbnb, eBay, Cisco, etc.), often as the backbone of their development platform.
While its interface may seem a little dense at first, it hides a formidable project management and technical collaboration engine, capable of tracking every single ticket, from idea to production deployment.
Jira's main features
Designed with software development in mind, Jira offers an arsenal of robust features for planning, tracking and delivering complex projects in an agile environment, including :
- ultra-completeticket management: every task, bug or improvement becomes a ticket that can be tracked, assigned and prioritised;
- customised workflows to model your business workflows with statuses, transitions and rules tailored to each project;
- agile sprints and backlogs;
- time and performance monitoring with burndown, velocity or cumulative reports to measure the efficiency of the development team;
- dynamic dashboards and visualisation of project activity using custom widgets (tasks in progress, blocked tickets, estimated time vs. real time, etc.);
- the creation of rules to automate actions (automatic ticket closure, notifications, cross-updates, etc.);
- a powerful search engine (JQL): filter data precisely using the Jira Query Language, highly prized by technical project managers;
- deep integration with the Atlassian ecosystem, including Confluence (documentation), Bitbucket (code), Trello and Slack.
Jira
Advantages and disadvantages of Jira
Jira is a benchmark in agile project management, but its high level of performance sometimes means that it requires a more technical approach. Here's what you can really expect.
✅ It's a strategic choice for technical teams who want total control over their workflows and extensive visibility over the entire development cycle, thanks to :
- its excellence in agile management: sprints, backlogs, epics, user stories... Jira is designed for the agile project in its purest form ;
- its fully customisable workflows, making it ideal for complex or multi-team environments;
- its ultra-detailed performance monitoring with burndown charts, velocity, SLAs, blocked tickets... making data-driven management a reality;
- its advanced search with JQL, a powerful engine for extracting exactly what you need;
- its solid Atlassian ecosystem;
- its cloud or self-hosted model: more flexibility depending on your company's constraints (security, data sovereignty, etc.).
❌ But be warned, Jira is not a "plug & play" tool: without a bit of configuration, you may quickly become overwhelmed by its complexity. Here are its limitations:
- a steep learning curve, and new users can quickly feel lost, especially if they have no experience of agile management;
- a dense and initially unintuitive interface, especially for non-developers;
- unsuitable for non-technical teams: marketers, HR or sales people may find it too rigid;
- a potentially high cost in the enterprise, especially if you add other Atlassian tools to complete the ecosystem;
- too much customisation kills simplicity and badly configured, Jira becomes a maze of statuses and tickets.
Monday vs Jira: compare features
| Functionality | monday.com | Jira |
| Task management | Simple, visual, accessible | Highly detailed, focused on tickets |
| Customisable workflows | Yes, via code-free interface | Yes, very advanced, but more technical |
| Views available | Charts, Kanban, Gantt, calendar, timeline | Scrum, Kanban, roadmap, calendar |
| Automation | Integrated, easy to configure | Powerful but more technical to set up |
| Agile management (sprints, backlog, etc.) | Basic, using templates | Advanced, adapted to agile development teams |
| Dashboards and reporting | Visual, customisable | Very comprehensive, performance-oriented |
| Team collaboration | Comments, notifications, sharing | Notifications, mentions, comments in tickets |
| Time tracking | Included according to plan | Yes, with real-time and historical reports |
| Advanced search engine | Basic | Advanced (JQL) |
| Integrations | +200 (Slack, Teams, GitHub, Google...) | Very rich, especially in the Atlassian ecosystem |
Focus on task and workflow management
👉 monday.com is perfect for viewing, assigning and tracking tasks in board or Kanban mode. Its approach is more intuitive, even for non-tech teams. On the other hand, the management of complex workflows remains limited.
👉 Jira, on the other hand, shines when it comes to modelling complex business processes. If you're managing dependencies, multiple statuses or business rules, it offers you unrivalled granularity... at the price of more advanced configuration.
Focus on project visualisation
👉 monday.com is the winner when it comes to visuals: colourful timeline, multiple views, dynamic tables... everything is designed for quick reading. Perfect for decision-makers.
👉 Jira also offers powerful views, but focused on agility (backlog, sprint, epic). Less "wow effect", but more structure for complex projects.
Focus on task management
👉 For simple to moderately complex tasks ,onday.com is a delight: quick creation, one-click assignment, clear tracking.
👉 Jira, on the other hand, excels at technical tasks with multiple statuses, sub-tasks, links between issues... but at the cost of a denser interface.
Focus on collaboration and communication
👉 monday.com encourages fast, natural collaboration: comments, mentions, file sharing... all in a fluid interface.
👉 Jira is more formal: comments are attached to each ticket, with a technical documentation-oriented logic.
Focus on performance monitoring
👉 With monday.com, you get visual dashboards and customisable reports to track progress and efficiency.
👉 Jira, on the other hand, goes further with agile indicators (burndown, velocity, SLA, etc.), perfect for teams that want to measure each sprint in detail.
Monday vs Jira: compare prices
Here's a summary comparison to help you anticipate the real costs based on your project team's needs.
| Plan / Tool | monday.com | Jira |
| Free version |
|
|
| Entry plan (Basic / Standard) | Basic: €9 / user / month
|
|
| Intermediate plan | Standard: €12 / user / month
|
Standard: €7.75 / user / month
|
| Advanced plan | Pro: €19 / user / month
|
Premium: €14.63 / user / month
|
| Enterprise plan | Enterprise: on quotation
|
Enterprise: on quotation
|
monday.com vs Jira: which interface is more intuitive?
| Comparison | monday.com | Jira |
| Overall ergonomics | Modern, intuitive, colourful interface | More dense, technical, designed for developers |
| Learning curve | Very fast, even without training | Fairly steep, needs time to master workflows |
| Navigation | Tabbed views, fluid navigation | Complex, sometimes confusing tree structure |
| Mobile accessibility | Excellent mobile app (iOS/Android) | Functional app, but less fluid |
| Visual experience | Very graphic (timeline, Kanban, Gantt, etc.) | More functional than visual |
| User onboarding | Guided, with integrated templates and tutorials | Less assisted, often requires training or a dedicated admin |
💡 To sum up:
- monday.com comes out on top in terms of intuitiveness. It's a visual, accessible tool, designed for a variety of teams (marketing, HR, IT...).
- Jira is more technical, designed for software development teams who like rigour... and aren't afraid of a little complexity.
Monday vs Jira: compare integrations
The better a tool integrates into your stack, the more strategic it becomes . Whether it's linking your marketing apps, your development tools or your CRM databases, the ability of a piece of software to 'talk' well with the others is a real deciding factor.
👉 Number of integrations available:
- monday.com: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Around 200 native integrations, via the marketplace or Zapier. Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, HubSpot, Salesforce, GitHub, Google Sheets, Zoom... The base is solid, even if some advanced integrations require a higher plan. - Jira: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Over 1,000 integrations available via the Atlassian Marketplace. Advanced connections with Bitbucket, Confluence, GitLab, Jenkins, GitHub, Figma, Sentry, Notion, etc. Jira is a real hub for DevOps or product teams.
👉 Ease of configuration:
- monday.com: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
A very "plug & play" logic: the interface lets you connect apps without code, in just a few clicks. The experience is fluid, even for non-technical users. Perfect for SMEs or agile product teams. - Jira: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Some integrations are powerful, but more technical to configure, especially when they need to dialogue with customised workflows. This often requires an admin or a real configuration phase.
👉 Customisation and automation:
- monday.com: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Integrations can be linked to simple automations (via "if this, then that" logic), which are very effective for managing notifications, field synchronisations or conditional actions. - Jira: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The possibilities are very advanced: you can create complex rules, scripts, or link integrations to tickets, transitions or even SLAs. Jira is designed for structured technical environments.
💡 The verdict:
Jira has the edge when it comes to the quantity and depth of integrations, particularly in a complex DevOps or agile context.
monday.com, on the other hand, appeals for its ease of implementation and logic that is accessible to all, perfect for rapid integration into multidisciplinary teams.
When should you choose Monday or Jira?
monday.com and Jira are not in the same league, which is precisely what makes them complementary. The right choice depends on the way you manage projects, the composition of your team and your organisation's level of agile maturity.
Examples of Monday use cases
monday.com is designed for teams looking for a simple, flexible tool that is quick to deploy. You don't need to be a developer to get the most out of it: it's all based on "no-code" logic.
👉 Choose monday.com if you need to :
- centralise the work of a non-technical team: marketing, HR, finance or support ;
- manage several types of project with different processes (campaigns, onboarding, events, etc.);
- visualise activity easily using Kanban, Gantt or timeline charts, without complex configuration;
- collaborate seamlessly with internal and external stakeholders (customers, partners, etc.);
- automate repetitive tasks without writing a single line of code;
- move forward quickly with a ready-to-use tool that can be customised in just a few clicks.
🗣️ Customer testimonial :
Examples of Jira use cases
Jira is designed for technical teams, complex products and organisations that adopt a true agile culture. It's the tool for teams who like to measure, structure and iterate.
👉 Choose Jira if you need to:
- manage structured agile projects, with sprints, backlogs, user stories, bugs, tickets ;
- manage a software development team or a tech product with a real need for traceability;
- configure complex workflows, with several stages, statuses and conditional transitions;
- finely measure a team's performance with detailed reports (burndown, velocity, etc.);
- integrate the tool into an advanced technical ecosystem (CI/CD, Git, Jira Service Management, etc.);
- maintaining methodological rigour, even on complex, multi-team or high-load projects.
🗣️ Customer testimonial :
Monday or Jira: the right tool depends on how you manage projects
There is no absolute winner in this duel between monday.com and Jira. There are two complementary visions of project management:
- monday.com focuses on flexibility, readability and visual efficiency. It is the ally of hybrid marketing, product or support teams who want to move forward quickly, collaborate without friction, and automate without coding.
- Jira embodies agile rigour, technical power and granular control. It is the standard for software development teams and technically complex projects.
Here's our advice based on your needs:
| Business need | The right tool |
| Managing marketing campaigns, events or CRM | ✅ monday.com |
| Monitor software development projects with sprints | ✅ Jira |
| Working with a non-tech multidisciplinary team | ✅ monday.com |
| Implement a structured agile methodology (Scrum, Kanban) | ✅ Jira |
| Easily view tasks in a dynamic dashboard | ✅ monday.com |
| Track technical tickets, bugs or customer requests | ✅ Jira |
| Create automations without coding | ✅ monday.com |
| Set up complex workflows with conditional rules | ✅ Jira |
| Obtain simple, visual activity reports | ✅ monday.com |
| Extract accurate data with an advanced search engine | ✅ Jira |
☝️ In any case, it's best to try it out: both offer a free version to get a concrete idea before switching over your entire organisation.
FAQ
Can you use Monday or Jira without being a developer?
Yes, and that's one of the great strengths of monday.com: it was designed for non-technical teams (marketing, HR, sales, etc.). Its intuitive interface, visual tables and no-code automation system make it a project management solution that's accessible to everyone.
Jira, on the other hand, is aimed primarily at software development teams. It's perfectly possible to use it without being a developer... but you'll need more time to understand its logic.
Do Monday and Jira offer a free version?
Yes, both platforms offer a free plan:
- monday.com: free for up to 2 users, with the basic views (table, Kanban), but without automation or advanced integrations.
- Jira: free for up to 10 users, with solid features for launching an agile project (backlog, board, sprint, tickets, etc.).
It's a good way of testing each management tool before making a commitment.
Can I migrate easily from Monday to Jira (or vice versa)?
Migration is possible, but not always easy. monday.com and Jira use different data structures (tables vs. tickets). Import/export tools are available (CSV, API, Zapier), but it's best to plan the transition and test beforehand with a pilot project.
For complex migrations, it is advisable to call on the services of an integrator or technical support.
Monday or Jira: which is best suited to bug management?
Without hesitation: Jira. It was designed for this. Bug tracking, prioritisation, assignment, history, SLA, ticket lifecycle automation... It's the tool of choice for IT and QA teams.
monday.com can be used to report bugs or classify them, but that's not its primary purpose.
Monday or Jira: which is more customisable?
It all depends on how you define 'customisable':
- monday.com: highly customisable visually (views, fields, status, colours, etc.), with no coding. It's ideal for teams who want a tailor-made project management interface, quickly.
- Jira: highly customisable in terms of workflows, permissions, transitions and business rules. But it requires a little more expertise (or even a dedicated administrator).
Article translated from French