10 Best monday.com Alternatives for SEO Agencies (2026)

Quick summary

The best monday.com alternative for an SEO agency is a tool built around clients and monthly retainers, with approvals and reporting included. OthFlow (our product) fits SEO retainers most closely. Teamwork.com and Productive suit agencies that bill by the hour, and ClickUp and Trello are the cheapest places to start.

Key takeaways:

• monday.com sells seats in buckets that start at three, and clients can only join as guests from the Standard plan up.
• Free client access is easy to find elsewhere. Teamwork.com, Productive and ProofHub don’t charge for client users, and Asana guests are free on paid plans.
• Client approvals and proofing usually come on higher plans, like Asana Advanced, Wrike Business or ClickUp Business.
• If you bill hourly or need profitability reports, Teamwork.com or Productive will fit better than OthFlow, which doesn’t track time.

Your clients use your project tool too

Thinking about moving your agency off monday.com? Start by checking what it costs you to work with clients there. A 10-person team on monday.com’s Standard plan pays $120 a month on annual billing. That’s also the first plan that lets you invite clients as guests.

Plus, an SEO agency doesn’t use a project tool the way an in-house team does. You run the same monthly cycle for every client, and each blog post goes through the same stages. On top of that, every client wants to see progress and sign off on work. That’s what we looked for in these monday.com competitors. But first, let’s look at where monday.com gets awkward for agencies.

Why agencies leave monday.com

monday.com describes its product as “a flexible workflow system that helps teams track tasks, manage projects, and collaborate at scale.” That means you build it yourself out of boards, columns and automations. But if you run retainers, you’ll likely hit four snags, and monday.com’s own pages spell out each one.

You pay for seats in buckets

monday.com’s paid plans start at three seats, and seats come in fixed buckets like 3, 5, 10 and 15. In monday.com’s own example, a team of 6 has to buy the 10-seat plan. Go one person over your bucket for more than 5 days, and monday.com upgrades you and bills you for the next bucket. That matters when freelance writers and link builders join and leave your team from month to month.

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Clients need Standard, and guests can edit by default

Clients get into monday.com as guests, and guests are only available on Standard and above. On Standard, every 4 guests count as 1 billed seat. So your first three guests are free, and the fourth turns that group into a paid seat. Pro and Enterprise allow unlimited guests.

By default, a guest can create items, edit and add columns, and comment on the boards they’re invited to. So if you only want a client to watch and approve, lock down the permissions on their board. There’s also no client portal in the work management product, because monday.com’s Customer Portal is part of monday service, a separate product.

Client reports go out as PDFs or shared views

Your charts live in monday.com dashboards, but dashboards can only be shared with people who have a monday.com account. For everyone else, monday.com suggests a PDF export or a shared board view. Scheduled PDF exports are capped by plan, with 1 on Standard and 5 on Pro. So if you report to 12 clients a month on Standard, one report goes out on schedule and you’ll send the other 11 yourself.

Monthly retainer work runs on capped automations

A retainer repeats every month, so in monday.com you’d set up a recurring automation that recreates the item or group on a schedule. Automations start on Standard, which includes 250 actions a month. But monday.com’s own help center says that allowance is “typically exhausted within days” for accounts that notify multiple people. Pro raises the cap to 25,000 actions a month, and it’s also the first plan with time tracking.

How we chose these monday.com alternatives

We judged every tool on the jobs an SEO retainer involves, as an agency owner or ops lead would:

• Managing many clients: Can you keep each client’s work separate and still see all of them at once?
• Retainer cycles: Does the monthly work come back each month without rebuilding it?
• Deliverable stages: Can an audit or a blog post move through clear stages with an owner and a due date?
• Client approvals and visibility: Can clients see progress and approve work, and what does each client login cost?
• Reporting to clients: Can you show clients their progress without exporting spreadsheets?
• Setup effort: How much do you have to build before the first client goes in?
• Pricing at agency scale: What does the plan with client access cost for a team of 5 to 15?

Every fact below comes from each vendor’s own pricing page and help center. Prices and features were checked on November 5, 2026, from a US connection. Prices are in US dollars, as each vendor shows them to US visitors. If retainer cycles matter most to you, our page on retainer workflow software for SEO agencies goes deeper on that one job.

monday.com alternatives compared

OthFlow: best for SEO agencies running monthly retainers

Quick disclosure before anything else, OthFlow is our product. We’ve judged it on the same criteria as the other nine, limitations included.

OthFlow is software for SEO agencies that run monthly retainers for several clients. We describe it as “Built by SEO specialists, for SEO agencies,” which means you don’t have to build a retainer workflow from scratch.

Best for

SEO and content agencies of 2 to 30 people running monthly retainers for up to 40 clients. You’ll get the most from it if you want delivery, client approvals and billing in one place.

What it does well for agencies

Each month starts with an SEO plan, one per client, which you move from draft to sent to approved. That way, the client signs off on the month’s work before it starts. Each client also has their own record, which holds their retainer, retainer cycles, onboarding, messages and mood.

The work itself lives in deliverables, and each one has an owner, a stage, a due date, a working link and notes. Preset types cover technical audits, backlinks, keyword research, on-page fixes, monthly content and client approvals. Content, for example, goes through Brief, Outline, Writing, Editing, QA, Client Review and Published. You can change those stages for each service, as our SEO project management software page shows.

Clients follow along through a private portal link, and they don’t need a login. The portal shows their progress, what you need from them, approvals, messages and invoices. Clients rate you from 1 to 10 each week, and they can print a progress report straight from the portal.

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Behind the scenes, we give every client a health score from 0 to 100, built from delivery, relationship and billing signals. Each score shows a trend and feeds into a watch list. Your agency dashboard also shows portfolio health, late work, a priority queue and overdue invoices.

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Billing is in the same place too, with retainer and recurring invoices, payment tracking and overdue flags. Tasks go on a kanban tied to each client, and reusable onboarding checklists split steps between your team and the client. You connect Search Console and GA4 once, and your reports sync daily with read-only access.

Limitations

• There’s no time tracking or profitability reporting, so you’ll need another tool for hourly billing and margin per client.
• There are no AI features.
• Search Console and GA4 are our only integrations, so you can’t connect any other tools.
• We’re not a CRM or an accounting tool, so your sales pipeline and bookkeeping stay where they are now.
• There’s no free plan, and you get started by booking a demo.

Pricing

• Starter: $79/month for up to 5 active clients
• Growth: $179/month for up to 15 active clients
• Agency: $349/month for up to 40 active clients

Our pricing page counts an active client as one with an active retainer. Yearly billing gives you two months free, at $790, $1,790 or $3,490 a year.

Teamwork.com: free client users and retainer budgets, priced for bigger teams

Best for

Agencies big enough to bill from tracked time and run retainer budgets, with clients working inside their projects.

What it does well for agencies

Teamwork.com is a PSA, short for professional services automation, which means you track time, budgets and margin right alongside your projects. Client users are a free license type, so you can invite as many client contacts as your projects need. They can comment and complete tasks, and you can set approval tasks for them.

On Accelerate, a retainer budget can be hourly or fixed fee, reset monthly or quarterly, and carry a surplus or deficit forward. There’s also a direct monday.com importer. And clients can review proofs without an account.

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Limitations

• Retainers and invoicing start on Accelerate, which needs at least 5 users. Profitability tracking needs Optimize, which has no published price.
• Each client user can join at most five active projects, and client users can’t open the Reports area.
• The monday.com importer doesn’t map custom fields or workflow stages, so you’ll rebuild those by hand.
• Teamwork.com aims its agency pitch at “50+ person agencies,” so a small shop may pay for more than it uses.

Pricing

Teamwork.com’s pricing page lists these plans:

• Free: $0 for up to 5 users and 5 projects, without client users
• Basics: $9.99/user/month billed annually ($13.99 monthly), minimum 3 users, 20 proofs a month
• Accelerate: $24.99/user/month billed annually ($29.99 monthly), minimum 5 users, unlimited proofs
• Optimize and Enterprise: contact sales

Productive: retainers, time and invoices in one place, if you track hours

Best for

Agencies that bill from tracked time and want budgets, retainers and invoices right next to the project work.

What it does well for agencies

Productive is purpose-built for agencies, consultancies and other professional services businesses. Time tracking, budgets and invoicing come on every plan. Clients are free to add too, so a client contact can follow their tasks without costing you a seat.

Retainers come in on the Professional plan. Recurring budgets reset on a schedule, such as monthly or quarterly, and Productive can draft an invoice automatically for each new period. Professional also lets your client leads see budgets and approved time, which helps when a client asks where their hours went.

Limitations

• Every plan needs at least 3 paid seats, and there’s no free plan.
• Productive’s site doesn’t describe a proofing or file approval tool, so clients sign off through tasks and comments.
• On Essential, clients see projects and tasks only, and letting a client comment also lets them edit tasks.
• Repeating tasks start on Professional.

Pricing

From Productive’s pricing page, with a 3-seat minimum on every plan:

• Essential: $10/user/month billed yearly ($12 monthly)
• Professional: $25/user/month billed yearly ($29 monthly)
• Ultimate: contact sales

ClickUp: builds almost anything, as long as you do the building

Best for

Agencies that want a low price per seat and have someone who enjoys setting up systems.

What it does well for agencies

ClickUp is flexible enough to recreate your monday.com setup. Its monday.com importer turns boards into Folders and Lists and brings across assignees, comments, custom fields, due dates and statuses. Recurring tasks and templates are on every plan, so a monthly checklist can repeat by itself.

View-only guests are free and unlimited on paid plans, and a public link lets anyone view a task or list without an account. But guests who can comment or edit come from an allowance, starting at 5 plus 2 per paid member on Core.

Limitations

• Dashboards can’t be shared outside your Workspace, so you’ll report to clients through public links or exports.
• Proofing is unlimited only from Business, and Core gets a trial.
• We couldn’t find a client portal or an approval task type in ClickUp’s docs, so you’ll build client sign-off yourself.
• Upgrading means upgrading your whole Workspace, every member included.

Pricing

ClickUp’s pricing page shows:

• Free Forever: $0
• Core: $9/user/month billed yearly ($12 monthly)
• Business: $17/user/month billed yearly ($25 monthly)
• Enterprise: custom pricing

Asana: tidy task management, plus a client portal on Advanced

Best for

Agencies already working in Asana that want a client portal without changing tools.

What it does well for agencies

Asana’s Starter plan includes unlimited free guests for working with clients and partners, and recurring tasks come on every plan.

There’s also Asana Client Management, its product for agencies and professional services firms. On Advanced, a Client Portal gives clients one place to track projects, review deliverables and send feedback, without taking a seat. Advanced also adds approval tasks and proofing on PDFs and images.

Limitations

• Approvals, proofing, portfolios and native time tracking all need Advanced, at $24.99 per user a month billed annually.
• Timesheets, rates and budgets are a paid add-on on every plan, and Asana doesn’t publish its price.
• Asana’s help center says Client Management isn’t included in the standard plans by default, so check how it’s billed.
• Above five users, seats come in steps of 5, so a team of 6 pays for 10.

Pricing

Asana’s pricing page lists these plans, and Client Management Starter and Advanced show the same per-user prices:

• Personal: free for up to 2 users
• Starter: $10.99/user/month billed annually ($13.49 monthly)
• Advanced: $24.99/user/month billed annually ($30.49 monthly)
• Enterprise: contact sales

Hive: strong client approvals, with most client features sold as add-ons

Best for

Agencies that send drafts, designs and videos through several rounds of client review.

What it does well for agencies

Hive’s external approvers are people outside your company, and they only need an email address to annotate, comment, approve or request changes. Hive doesn’t charge for reviewers, and its External Review Portal puts every proof waiting on a client in one place.

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When clients join a project as external users, Client Mode keeps every action private to your team by default. Recurring actions and project templates cover the monthly repeat work. Hive also has a monday.com import that turns each board you pick into one project.

Limitations

• Proofing and approvals, external users and timesheets are add-ons on the Teams plan, listed at +$5 each.
• Retainer agreements live in the Hive Finance add-on, listed at $12 per user a month.
• Starter caps you at 10 members and 10 projects, which an agency with more than 10 clients will outgrow.

Pricing

Hive’s pricing page lists:

• Free: $0 for up to 10 workspace members
• Starter: $5/user/month billed yearly ($7 monthly)
• Teams: $12/user/month billed yearly ($18 monthly), with add-ons extra
• Enterprise: contact sales

Hive’s prices may vary by region; these are the US prices shown on its pricing page in November 2026.

Wrike: formal approvals and guest reviews, mostly on Business

Best for

Agencies that want multi-step approval workflows and can commit to annual billing.

What it does well for agencies

On Business, guest reviewers can open files without a Wrike account, add comments and choose Approve or Changes required. They only see the files in approvals assigned to them, so your tasks and projects stay hidden.

Viewers are free and can view and comment, which suits clients who only want to follow along. Blueprints, which are Wrike’s templates, let you start each client’s month from the same setup. And if you’d like help moving, Wrike’s monday.com comparison page says “Our team will help you migrate.”

Limitations

• Approvals, guest reviewers, proofing, time tracking and blueprints all start on Business, at $25 per user a month.
• Business and the plans above it are sold as annual subscriptions only.
• Budgeting and billable-time reports start on Pinnacle, which has no published price.
• Wrike’s help center says recurring tasks aren’t available on the Team plan.

Pricing

Prices are per user and billed annually, according to Wrike’s pricing page:

• Free: $0
• Team: $10/user/month for 2 to 15 users
• Business: $25/user/month for 5 to 200 users
• Pinnacle and Apex: contact sales

Basecamp: calm client communication, light on structure

Best for

Small agencies that mostly need clear conversations, to-dos and files in one place for a handful of clients.

What it does well for agencies

Basecamp is built around projects, and its help docs suggest making one for each client engagement. Client mode makes everything in a client project private by default. So each time you post, you choose whether the client can see it. Clients can post messages, comment and complete to-dos, which keeps feedback out of email.

Pricing is flat, with no per-user fees, and Pro includes project templates so you can reuse a client setup. To-dos can repeat daily, weekly or monthly, which covers the recurring parts of a retainer.

Limitations

• Clients count toward your user limit on every plan except Pro Unlimited, and Pro allows 10 users and 8 active projects.
• Basecamp’s site doesn’t describe approvals, proofing, invoicing or budgets.
• Time tracking starts on Pro Plus.
• There’s no monday.com importer.

Pricing

Basecamp’s pricing page lists flat prices:

• Free: 1 project, up to 3 users
• Freelancer: $29/month for 3 projects and 5 users
• Pro: $79/month for 8 projects and 10 users
• Pro Plus: $99/month for 12 projects and 15 users
• Pro Unlimited: $199/month billed annually or $329/month billed monthly, with unlimited projects and users

ProofHub: flat price for unlimited users and clients, with proofing built in

Best for

Agencies that send lots of files for client approval and want one flat bill no matter how many people join.

What it does well for agencies

ProofHub charges a flat monthly price with unlimited users, and clients aren’t charged when you invite them to a project. Proofing comes on both plans. You can share a proofing link with people outside your account, and they can review, comment on and approve the file.

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Time tracking is on both plans too. And when you make a discussion or task list private, only the people you add can see it.

Limitations

• Essential is capped at 40 projects, and reports and custom roles, like a client role, are only on Ultimate Control.
• Ultimate Control’s $89 price is a three-month offer, and after that it’s $135 a month billed annually.
• ProofHub’s site doesn’t describe retainer budgets or invoicing.
• Moving from monday.com means a CSV export and import.

Pricing

ProofHub’s pricing page shows two plans, both with unlimited users:

• Essential: $45/month billed annually ($50 monthly), up to 40 projects
• Ultimate Control: $89/month billed annually or $99 monthly for the first three months, then $135 or $150

Trello: simple and cheap, but clients see the whole board

Best for

Very small teams that want one simple board per client and costs close to zero.

What it does well for agencies

Each client gets a board, and you move cards from list to list as the work progresses. Single-board guests are free on paid plans, so a client invited to just their own board doesn’t add to your bill. The Card Repeater Power-Up can copy a card every month for recurring retainer tasks.

On Premium, you can add Observers, who can read and comment but can’t move or edit cards.

Limitations

• Guests are normal board members by default, and you can’t hide specific cards, so clients see everything on their board.
• A guest on two or more boards is billed like a full member on Standard and Premium.
• Time tracking only comes through third-party Power-Ups, and Trello doesn’t describe an approval or proofing feature.
• Trello has no import tool for monday.com data.

Pricing

Trello’s pricing page lists:

• Free: $0 for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace, guests included
• Standard: $5/user/month billed annually ($6 monthly)
• Premium: $10/user/month billed annually ($12.50 monthly)
• Enterprise: $17.50/user/month billed annually, estimated for 50 users

How to choose a monday.com alternative by situation

Start from how your agency bills and what your clients need to see:

• You run 5 to 40 SEO retainers and want clients in a portal: OthFlow fits, starting at $79 a month with unlimited team members.
• You bill by the hour and need margin per client: Productive has time tracking and invoicing on every plan. Teamwork.com adds retainer budgets from Accelerate and profitability tracking on Optimize.
• You want to rebuild your monday.com setup for less: ClickUp imports monday.com boards directly, and Core costs $9 per user a month billed yearly.
• Your clients review lots of files: Hive’s external approvers and Wrike’s guest reviewers both work without an account. And ProofHub includes proofing for one flat price.
• You have a handful of clients and mostly need clear communication: Basecamp’s Client mode keeps internal chatter hidden from clients.
• You’re a team of two or three with almost no budget: Trello Free or ClickUp Free Forever will cover the basics.
• You already live in Asana: Asana Client Management Advanced adds a client portal without switching tools.

If you’re weighing tools beyond monday.com replacements, see our guide to the best SEO project management software for agencies.

How to switch from monday.com

Switching mid-retainer feels risky, but it’s manageable if you treat it as a one-month trial.

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1. Export everything first. Export each board to Excel, up to 100,000 items at a time, with item updates if you want the comment history. An admin can also export the whole account as a zip file once every 24 hours. That export leaves out dashboards, archived boards and workdocs, so save workdocs as PDFs first.
2. Map boards to clients and deliverables. A client board becomes a client or project, and monthly groups become a retainer cycle. Status columns become deliverable stages, and person columns become owners. Flag any columns that hold working links or due dates, because they’re easy to lose.
3. Check how the new tool imports. Teamwork.com, ClickUp and Hive document a direct monday.com import. Asana, Productive and ProofHub use spreadsheet or CSV imports, and Wrike offers help from its team. Even a direct import skips some data, so read the help page first.
4. Run one client in both tools for a month. Pick a typical retainer client and run one full cycle in the new tool, from the monthly plan to the client report. Keep monday.com running for everyone else. Invite that client at the start of the month, so you can see where they get stuck.
5. Move the rest at the start of a cycle. Switching each client at the start of a month means no retainer month gets split across two tools. Once the last monday.com cycle closes, store your exports somewhere safe and reduce your seats or cancel.

FAQs

Our verdict for SEO agencies

monday.com is flexible, but you build the setup yourself, and its guest rules and seat buckets add to your bill. If you’d rather have the retainer structure, client portal and invoices ready from day one, OthFlow was built for exactly that. If you bill by the hour, start with Productive or Teamwork.com. And if you just want your current setup somewhere cheaper, ClickUp is the easiest switch.

Want to see how your retainers would look in OthFlow?