Custom CRM vs Monday CRM
A project tool pretending to be a CRM.
Monday.com is an excellent project management platform that decided to become a CRM. The result is what you'd expect: a project management tool with CRM features bolted on. The board-based interface is great for tracking tasks and projects. It's awkward for managing customer relationships, sales pipelines, and the kind of relational data a real CRM needs to handle. If your team already uses Monday.com for project management and wants a 'good enough' CRM in the same platform, it might work. If you need a real CRM, it's a compromise.
Where Monday CRM Falls Short
Common pain points businesses hit with Monday CRM, and why they start looking at alternatives.
Board-Based Isn't CRM-Based
Monday.com's core paradigm is the board: a flexible spreadsheet-like view. This works brilliantly for project management. For CRM, it creates friction. Customer relationships aren't rows in a board. They're complex entities with communication history, multiple deals, cross-references to other contacts, and activity timelines. Monday CRM tries to force relational CRM data into a board structure, and the seams show.
Limited Relational Data
Real CRM work requires rich relationships between data: a contact belongs to a company, is involved in multiple deals, has a communication history, is linked to support tickets, and is tagged with custom attributes. Monday CRM handles basic contact-to-deal linking but struggles with the depth of relational data that serious CRM operations require. Complex queries across related records are difficult or impossible.
Automation Is Board-Scoped
Monday.com automations work within and between boards. But CRM automation often needs to span the entire customer lifecycle, triggering actions based on data from sales, support, billing, and communication history simultaneously. Board-scoped automation can't orchestrate workflows that cross functional boundaries the way purpose-built CRM automation can.
Pricing for CRM Features
Monday CRM is priced separately from Monday Work Management. The CRM product starts at $12/seat/month but the features you need (email tracking, mass emails, custom automations) require the Standard ($17/seat) or Pro ($28/seat) tier. For a 25-person team on Pro: $8,400/year, and you still have a project tool playing CRM.
Feature Comparison
How custom CRM stacks up against Monday CRM on the things that actually matter.
| Feature | Monday CRM | Custom CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Core design | Project management tool with CRM add-on | CRM built from the ground up |
| Data model | Board-based (spreadsheet paradigm) | Relational database, purpose-built |
| Contact relationships | Basic linking | Rich relational data with full history |
| Automation scope | Board-scoped | System-wide, cross-functional |
| Communication tracking | Email integration (paid tiers) | Email, SMS, calls, all built-in |
| Sales pipeline | Board view adapted for deals | Purpose-built pipeline with custom stages |
| Reporting | Dashboard widgets (limited cross-board) | Any data, any combination, any format |
| Per-seat cost | $12-$28/user/month | Unlimited users, one-time build |
Cost Comparison
The real total cost of ownership, not just the sticker price.
Monday CRM
Monday CRM Pro for 25 users: ~$8,400/year. Functional but limited by the board paradigm. Need real CRM depth? You'll supplement with other tools, adding cost and complexity.
Custom CRM
Custom CRM: one-time build designed as a CRM from the start. If your team also needs project management, we integrate with Monday.com for that. Best of both worlds without forcing a project tool to be your CRM.
When Monday CRM Is the Right Choice
Monday CRM works for teams already deep in the Monday.com ecosystem who want basic contact and deal tracking without adding another tool. If CRM is a secondary need and project management is primary, Monday CRM is a reasonable convenience. If CRM is core to your business, you need something built for it.
The Bottom Line
Monday.com built a great project management tool and added CRM features to capture more market. The result is a CRM that feels like a project tool because it is one. For basic contact tracking within the Monday ecosystem, it's fine. For businesses where customer relationship management is central to operations, a purpose-built CRM will outperform a repurposed project board every time.
What Our Clients Say
“Automated gift acknowledgments, pledge reminders, and year-end tax receipts. Our donors feel appreciated and our team spends time on mission instead of mail merges.”
Kenji Watanabe
Development Director, Green Horizons Environmental
Seattle, WA
“Cross-selling advisory services to our tax clients was ad hoc before. Now the CRM flags opportunities based on client profile and we've grown advisory revenue 40%.”
Howard Chen
Principal, Chen & Partners
New York, NY
“Wine club management, tasting room POS, and wholesale distribution CRM. Every customer interaction across all channels feeds into one profile. Our wine club retention hit 85%.”
Andrea Russo
Head of Sales, Bella Vista Winery
Napa, CA
“The project management integration means we go from closed deal to kickoff without any manual handoff. Our team velocity improved measurably within the first quarter.”
Natasha Volkov
CEO, Bright Strategy Group
Washington, DC
“Commercial energy audits, proposal generation, and project tracking all streamlined. We close more deals because prospects see professionalism at every touchpoint.”
Lisa Chen
Account Manager, GreenGrid Utilities
Sacramento, CA
“We went from managing 200 client relationships across 4 different systems to one unified platform. Our advisors can finally focus on advising instead of admin work.”
Thomas Nakamura
VP of Client Services, Pacific Coast Capital
Seattle, WA
“Commercial lease management is complex. CAM reconciliations, tenant improvement tracking, and lease escalation schedules all handled automatically now.”
Marco Bellini
VP of Operations, Metro Commercial Realty
New York, NY
“We doubled our inquiry-to-enrollment conversion rate in one year. The automated nurture sequences keep prospective families engaged through the decision process.”
Ryan Cooper
Director of Admissions, Horizon Learning Center
Raleigh, NC
Thinking About Switching from Monday CRM?
Book a discovery call and we'll walk through your current Monday CRM setup, what's not working, and what a custom CRM would look like for your team.