Focalboard
Monday.com
| Feature | Focalboard | Monday.com |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free only | Free / from $9/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Best For | self-hosters, mattermost-users, small-teams, open-source-advocates | teams, enterprise, sales-teams, marketing-teams |
| Founded | 2021 | 2012 |
| Kanban Boards | ✓ | ✗ |
| Table View | ✓ | ✗ |
| Calendar View | ✓ | ✗ |
| Templates | ✓ | ✗ |
| Filters | ✓ | ✗ |
| Self Hosting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Boards | ✗ | ✓ |
| Automations | ✗ | ✓ |
| Dashboards | ✗ | ✓ |
| Integrations | ✗ | ✓ |
| Crm | ✗ | ✓ |
| Forms | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Focalboard Pros
- Completely free and open-source
- Self-hostable for data control
- Multiple view types (board, table, gallery)
- Integrates with Mattermost
✗ Focalboard Cons
- Limited to basic project tracking
- No built-in time tracking
- Smaller community than alternatives
✓ Monday.com Pros
- Visual and intuitive
- Great automations
- CRM built-in
- Beautiful dashboards
✗ Monday.com Cons
- Expensive at scale
- Free plan is very limited
- Minimum 3 seats
The Verdict
Focalboard is built for self hosters and mattermost users, with a focus on kanban-boards and table-view. Monday.com targets teams and enterprise and leads with boards and automations.
Focalboard uses custom enterprise pricing, while Monday.com starts at $9/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Monday.com edges out on user ratings (4.5 vs 4). While both are well-regarded, that gap reflects real differences in user satisfaction worth considering.
Bottom line: Monday.com has a slight overall edge — but if completely free and open-source matters most to you, Focalboard may still be the right call.
