OneNote as a Free Alternative to Monday.com

Looking for a project management software that’s better than Monday.com or Asana? Online team sites like Monday.com and Asana are popular tools to share and collaborate. My business used them at one point, before we realized we were overpaying for something that we could set up and use for free (with way more flexibility and features).

Though these websites are marketed as good team solutions, there are alternatives that are more affordable, versatile, and robust that can help your business and team succeed. We recommend using OneNote in replacement of services like this.

As of this post publication date, Monday.com pricing starts at $8 per member per month, billed annually. While that might not seem like a lot, you’re basically paying for a glorified spreadsheet — plus you’re required to have a minimum of 3 users. So you’re actually paying $24/month. And that’s just for the basic plan. There are also Standard, Pro, and Enterprise plans.

If you are seeking a system to help you and your team monitor progress, organize projects, and meet deadlines, digital planning is a powerful tool. Digital planning offers a way for your team to collaborate easily. Using the OneNote application, team members have the ability to create notebooks and share them as needed.

(It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of digital planning. It’s a great way to get the most out of OneNote. But for the sake of argument, let’s compare the more expensive Monday.com to the free OneNote tools.)

Key features of Monday.com include:

1. Boards: Monday.com is organized into boards, which are customizable workspaces where teams can create and manage tasks, projects, and workflows.
2. Columns: Within boards, users can add columns to represent different aspects of their work, such as task names, due dates, assignees, status, and more.
3. Workflows: Users can define custom workflows that represent the stages a task or project goes through, helping to visualize and manage the entire process.
4. Automation: Monday.com includes automation features that allow users to automate repetitive tasks, notifications, and updates.
5. Collaboration: The platform facilitates collaboration by allowing team members to communicate, share files, and provide updates within the context of tasks and projects.
6. Integration: Monday.com integrates with a variety of third-party tools and services, such as file storage, communication apps, and other project management tools, to streamline workflows.

Sounds great, but here’s how OneNote can accomplish the same tasks. Even better? OneNote is free:

1. Notebooks as Boards: OneNote allows users to create notebooks, sections, and pages. You can use sections and pages to represent different aspects of your work, similar to boards and columns in Monday.com.
2. Sections and Pages as Columns: Within a notebook, you can create sections and pages to represent different columns in your project management setup. For example, you can have pages for tasks, due dates, assignees, and status.
3. Customizable Workflows: OneNote provides flexibility in structuring your content. While it may not have the same visual workflow representation as Monday.com, you can create your own workflow by organizing pages and sections in a way that represents the flow of your tasks and projects.
4. Automation: OneNote itself doesn’t have extensive automation features like Monday.com. However, you can manually update and organize your content. If you have specific automation needs, you might need to explore third-party integrations or Microsoft Power Automate. There is a way to set up automatic alerts and invites. See this video for more information!
5. Collaboration: OneNote supports collaboration by allowing multiple users to access and edit notebooks simultaneously. Users can leave comments, reply to notes, and collaborate in real-time.
6. Integration: OneNote integrates with other Microsoft Office applications and services. Additionally, there are third-party integrations available.

So both apps are capable of accomplishing the same thing. The only difference is that OneNote is free and takes some setting up. Fortunately, there are templates available if you don’t feel like setting it up 100% from scratch. Obviously there is a cost to that — but it’s much more affordable than a subscription service.