Best for
Best for non-technical teams that want a visual, automated way to manage work.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Resource Planning Comparison
monday.com vs. Retain
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for audit, tax, advisory and consulting firms that need skills-aware scheduling and, in some cases, the option to run it on their own servers.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | monday.com | Retain |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free; Basic from $9 / seat / month Billed annually; monthly billing is available without the 18% yearly discount. Standard $12 and Pro $19 per seat and month billed annually, Enterprise on request. The free plan covers up to 2 seats, paid plans start at 3 seats. | Quote-based Retain publishes no price list; the contact form routes pricing requests to sales. |
| Free trial | Free plan for up to 2 seats; 14-day free trial of Pro | Demo on request |
| Users | Not stated | Retain cites more than 1.5 million resources managed worldwide and over 100 large customers |
| API | Not stated | Yes, secure APIs for programmatic access to resources, bookings, jobs and operational data, plus middleware support through MuleSoft and Azure Logic Apps |
| Hosting | Not stated | Cloud as Retain Cloud, or on your own servers as Retain On-Premise |
| Made in | Israel | United Kingdom (Retain International, company number 01593831, part of AdvT Group) |
| Resource planning | Yes, resource management for workload and capacity across projects, on Enterprise | Yes, bookings against jobs and engagements with capacity and availability views, recurring bookings, conflict management and AI suitability matching on skills, experience and availability |
| Task planning | Yes, boards with table, Kanban, calendar, timeline and Gantt views | No, work is planned as bookings against jobs and engagements rather than as individual tasks |
| Time tracking | Yes, native, from the Pro plan | Yes, built-in timesheets that capture actual time against projects and tasks and compare it with planned allocations |
| Reporting and controlling | Yes, dashboards across boards; portfolio management on Enterprise | Yes, utilisation dashboards, revenue and delivery cost forecasting, operational notifications and audit logs |
| AI features | Yes | Yes |
| MCP-ready | stated Yes | No |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise |
| Support | more entries Email helpdesk, Chat, 24/7, Community forum | Email helpdesk, Phone |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Live online demos and webinars, Guided onboarding | Not stated |
| Company size | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Jira, Zapier | more entries Abacus, Aderant, Access APS, BambooHR, CCH, Employment Hero, IRIS Practice Management, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Outlook, Microsoft Synapse, MYOB GreatSoft, Oracle, Oracle NetSuite OpenAir, PracticePro 365, Salesforce, SAP, SugarCRM, Thomson Reuters GoFileRoom, Workday, MuleSoft, Azure Logic Apps |
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Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price monday.com Free; Basic from $9 / seat / month Retain Quote-based
- Free trial monday.com Free plan for up to 2 seats; 14-day free trial of Pro Retain Demo on request
- Deployment monday.com Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based Retain Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise
- Support monday.com Email helpdesk, Chat, 24/7, Community forum Retain Email helpdesk, Phone
- Made in monday.com Israel Retain United Kingdom (Retain International, company number 01593831, part of AdvT Group)
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
monday.com
Strengths
- Very visual and easy for non-technical teams
- Strong automations
- Flexible across use cases
Limitations
- Costs climb with automations and seats
- Free plan limited to 2 seats
- Resource and portfolio management only on Enterprise
Retain
Strengths
- Available both as a hosted cloud platform and as an on-premise installation
- Timesheets are part of the product, so planned and actual hours sit in the same system
- Integrations cover practice management, HR, CRM and finance systems, with middleware support and secure APIs
Limitations
- No published prices, so every quote comes from sales
- No task-level planning; work is tracked as bookings against jobs
- Shaped around audit, tax, advisory and consulting work, which narrows the fit outside professional services
Plans
Pricing
monday.com
- Free $0 Up to 2 seats, 3 boards and 3 docs.
- Basic $9 / seat / month Billed annually, minimum 3 seats. Includes 1,000 AI credits per month.
- Standard $12 / seat / month Billed annually, minimum 3 seats. Adds timeline, Gantt and calendar views, 250 automation and 250 integration actions per month.
- Pro $19 / seat / month Billed annually, minimum 3 seats. Adds time tracking and 25,000 automation and integration actions per month. 14-day free trial.
- Enterprise Custom On request. Adds portfolio and resource management and 24/7 enterprise support with tailored onboarding.
Retain
- Quote-based Not stated Retain publishes no price list; quotes come from sales.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
monday.com
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Retain
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.
Every review is read by a person before it appears. An email address is required and is confirmed: we send a link to it, and a review does not reach us until the author opens that link, so a review has a sender who was reachable at least once rather than being anonymous. Where what somebody writes needs backing, we ask them for evidence that they used the product, and a review that does not get it is not published. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.
What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on their own declaration, on whatever we ask them for, and on the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.
A vendor cannot buy a review, and cannot have one removed or changed because they dislike it. We remove or edit a review only if it breaks our rules or the law, for example a false statement of fact. Paid placement has no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
monday.com https://monday.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-27
Retain https://www.retaininternational.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-11
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.