A comparison · checked October 25, 2026
Looking for a ClickUp alternative? Here is an honest comparison
The best ClickUp alternative depends on why you are leaving. If it is the bill, price the AI, not just the seat: ClickUp lists its Brain AI at $9 per user a month and its Everything AI plan at $28 [1][3], and on October 25, 2026 its own pricing page served two different plan tables, one with Unlimited at $7 per user a month billed yearly and one with Core at $9 [1]. If it is the setup, ClickUp's own comparison page says a Workspace still needs decisions about Spaces, Folders, Lists, owners and statuses [2]. This page compares Kavanah, ClickUp, Asana and monday.com on what their own pages said today, says exactly what Kavanah can bring over from ClickUp and what it leaves behind, and names the cases where you should stay on ClickUp.
#Why it is different
Why teams look for a ClickUp alternative
Usually it is the bill, and the bill has two meters. Seats are the first: ClickUp upgrades a whole Workspace at once, every member included, and people from inside your organisation who are added as guests are billed as paid users [1]. AI is the second. ClickUp's Brain page lists Brain AI at $9 per user a month with unlimited Brain conversations and 1,500 AI Super Credits, and puts the full set (Notetaker, AI Fields, Automations, Super Agents) on Everything AI at $28 per user a month [3]. Extra credits are $10 per 10,000 [1]. On October 25, 2026 ClickUp's pricing page also carried a second plan table, with Core at $9 and Business at $17 per user a month billed yearly and AI credits pooled per user instead of an add-on [1]. A team pricing a move today cannot be sure which table its own checkout will show.
The free plan is generous for a trial and tight for a team. Free Forever allows unlimited members but 60MB of file storage, 5 Spaces and 100 automation executions, and lists Gantt charts and time tracking as trials [1]. ClickUp says its usage limits are cumulative and do not reset or count down, and that when one is reached you keep your data but cannot create or edit items with that feature [1]. Setup is the other common reason. ClickUp's own page against Asana says its templates give a starting pattern while the Workspace still needs choices about Spaces, Folders, Lists, ownership and statuses, and that Asana may fit teams that want less to configure at the outset [2].
Be fair to ClickUp, though, because the reasons to stay are real. One Workspace holds docs, chat, whiteboards, Gantt charts, goals and native time tracking from its entry paid plan [1], with 50+ native integrations on every plan [1]. Its security page lists SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 3 reports, ISO 27001:2022, 27017, 27018 and 27701, and ISO 42001 for AI management, and says its agents can only see or act on what a user has been given access to [4]. Leaving is a good decision when your team pays for breadth it does not use, or for AI it cannot predict. It is a bad one when your team really does live in ClickUp's docs, chat and whiteboards together. The checklist below is how to tell which.
#What to require
What to check in any ClickUp alternative before you move
Use this list on every tool you shortlist, including ours. The first two are where most ClickUp moves go wrong, because they are only discovered once the paperwork is signed.
01
An export your ClickUp plan allows
Check how you will get your work out before you pick where it goes. In the plan table ClickUp was testing on October 25, 2026, List view exports were not included on Free and a trial on Core, and Table view exports started on Business [1]. Then ask the new vendor what its import keeps and what it drops: comments, attachments, custom fields and docs are the usual losses. Test one real List.
02
The price at your real team size, with AI included
Seat prices hide the AI meter. ClickUp's AI is an add-on of $9 or $28 per user a month [3]; Asana's Starter includes 5 AI requests per user a month, up to 50 per account, with on-demand requests at $0.60 each [5]; monday.com's Basic plan includes 1,000 AI credits a month in its 10-seat example [6]. ClickUp's own comparison page warns that these allowances measure different things [2]. Price the team you will have in a year, including what its AI use will cost.
03
The work surfaces your team really uses
List what people open every day: docs, chat, whiteboards, time tracking, Gantt. Then check which plan carries each one. Native time tracking is on ClickUp's Unlimited plan [2], on Asana's Advanced plan with integrations only on Starter [5], and on monday.com's Pro plan [6]. A cheap entry tier that lacks one of your daily surfaces is not cheap.
04
Who counts as a seat
Clients and contractors change the bill. ClickUp's paid plans include a number of guest seats per paid user plus unlimited read-only guests [1]. Asana's Starter lists unlimited free guests [5], and monday.com's Basic lists unlimited free viewers with read-only access [6]. Count the outside people who need to edit, not just view.
05
Automation limits that fit your workload
Automation quotas differ by an order of magnitude between plans. ClickUp's Unlimited lists 500 active rules and 1,000 executions a month [1], Asana's Starter lists unlimited automations [5], and monday.com's Standard lists 250 automation actions a month [6]. Count what your busiest month runs today.
06
A way to run both tools during a pilot
A whole-company cutover is the riskiest way to switch. Prefer a tool that can read your ClickUp Lists while one team tries it, and check who approves any write back into ClickUp.
07
AI with a scope, an approval step and a record
Every tool here now ships AI agents. ClickUp says its agents respect user permissions [4]; Asana lists AI Teammates on every paid plan [5]. Ask each vendor what its agents may touch, which actions wait for a person, where each action is recorded, and how you reverse one.
08
Security evidence, and which plan has SSO
Ask for the report, not the badge, and check which plan carries SAML single sign-on and SCIM. On ClickUp, Google SSO is a Business feature and SAML SSO with SCIM provisioning is Enterprise [1]; on Asana, SAML and SCIM are Enterprise [5].
#How Kavanah does it
How Kavanah covers what you use ClickUp for
Kavanah is an agentic project management platform: tasks, projects, sprints and planning, with AI employees that do coordination work inside limits a person sets. Each item below describes the product as it ships today, including where it falls short of ClickUp.
AI priced as credits, with no add-on tier
Every AI action draws on one meter: credits, at roughly one cent each, with a typical agent reply costing about 70 credits on the default model. Pay as you go has no seat fee at all; you buy credits in packs from $10 per 1,000. If you prefer an allowance, Basic is $3 a seat a month ($2 billed yearly) with 100 credits a seat pooled for the workspace, and Pro is $6 ($4 yearly) with 250. A free Starter plan covers up to 5 members, 10 projects, 2 GB and 100 credits a month.
Learn morePlans differ by size, not by feature trials
Kavanah's plans limit members, projects, storage and AI credits. Boards, timelines, time tracking, team chat, the client portal and the AI agents are not held back as trials on smaller plans, and people you invite through the client portal are not charged as seats.
A ClickUp connector for the pilot
Connect ClickUp with a personal API token. The agent can then list your workspaces, Spaces, Lists and tasks, create a task with a name, description, status, due date and assignees, and update a task's name, description, status or due date. Writes into ClickUp wait for your approval by default and are removed entirely in safe mode. A background sync keeps an index of your ClickUp tasks, starting 90 days back; it does not create Kavanah tasks, but a new item can trigger an automation.
CSV import of a ClickUp export
Kavanah reads task name, description, status, priority, assignees, due date, tags and a checklist column. Imported into a new project, each distinct status becomes a board column and assignees are matched to members by email or name. Limits: 1,000 rows per import, only the first tag on a task is kept, and comments beyond a single column, attachments, custom fields, time entries and docs are not imported. There is no one-click ClickUp importer.
ClickUp's structure, mapped
Group projects into folders where you had Spaces and Folders; each project is a board, as a List was. Tasks have first-class sub-tasks, finish-to-start dependencies that refuse cycles, custom statuses per project, custom fields and recurring rules. Folders are one level deep, so a Space-and-Folder hierarchy flattens to folder and project.
Docs, chat and whiteboards in the same workspace
A knowledge library for docs, whiteboards and mind maps, team chat and threaded discussions, and a client portal, beside the boards rather than in another tool. Before you move, check the specific doc and chat features your team relies on in ClickUp against these.
Sprints planned at p50 and p90
Sprints with velocity, plus a planner that compares each person's estimates with the hours they actually logged over the last 90 days and says what fits at the median and at the 90th percentile. It never rewrites a stored estimate, and committing the sprint stays a human action.
AI employees with controls
AI employees with a role, scoped tools and access only to the projects you choose. Safe mode removes risky actions, action policies make chosen categories wait for approval, every action lands in a ledger, and actions can be undone. Anything that runs on its own or spends AI credits is off until you turn it on.
Learn moreAPI, CLI and MCP
A REST API with a published OpenAPI spec, API keys that carry the permissions of the person who minted them, the kvn command line, and an MCP server so Claude can use your workspace as a connector.
Learn moreIdentity and security, stated plainly
SAML 2.0 and OIDC single sign-on and SCIM on the Enterprise plan, TOTP and passkey sign-in, per-project and per-task access control, and an audit log. The SOC 2 Type II observation period is underway; there is no report yet, and ClickUp's list of audits and certifications is longer.
Learn more#In practice
Migrating from ClickUp to Kavanah, step by step
One team lead and a workspace admin
1. Pilot beside ClickUp
- In Settings, Integrations, connect ClickUp with a personal API token from the ClickUp account the team uses.
- Ask the agent for the team's open work, for example "tasks in our Launch list in ClickUp". It walks workspace, Space and List and answers in chat.
- Leave the default policy on, so any task the agent creates or updates in ClickUp waits for a person to approve it.
- Run one team's planning in Kavanah for two sprints while ClickUp stays the system of record for everyone else.
ClickUp Workspace admin
2. Export one List from ClickUp
- Export the List as CSV, using whichever export your ClickUp plan includes; check the plan table first, because exports are not on every plan [1].
- Open the file and check the header row. Kavanah reads a title from Task name, Name, Title or Summary, a description from Description, Details or Task description, plus Status, Priority, Assignee or Assignees, Due date and Tags. Rename any header that is spelled differently.
- Split the file so no import is over 1,000 rows.
- Keep the full export, and ClickUp itself, as your archive: attachments, docs, time entries, custom fields and history stay there.
Workspace admin
3. Import it as a new project
- Send the CSV to the task import API with a project name, from a script or the kvn command line. Each ClickUp status becomes its own column on the new board.
- For a small export you can instead attach the CSV in chat and ask the agent to import it.
- Read the import report. Assignees that matched no member are kept on the task as written; invite them, then reassign.
- The board's own Import CSV button also works, but it adds rows to the current project and folds statuses into open, in progress, review and done.
Team lead
4. Rebuild what a CSV does not carry
- Create folders for your old Spaces and Folders and move each imported project into one.
- Recreate the custom fields, recurring tasks and dependencies the team relies on.
- Rebuild your ClickUp automations as rules on the Automations page; a CSV carries none of them.
- Move the docs the team still uses into the knowledge library by hand, and link them from the tasks they explain.
#Compared
Kavanah, ClickUp, Asana and monday.com compared
Each competitor cell describes only what that vendor's own public page said when we checked on October 25, 2026: ClickUp's pricing page, its comparison with Asana, its Brain page and its security page [1][2][3][4], Asana's pricing page [5] and monday.com's pricing page [6]. ClickUp's pricing page served two plan tables that day, labelled in its markup as a control and a variant of a 2026 pricing test; where they differ, both are shown. ClickUp's help centre refused our automated requests and is not cited. "Not described" means the page did not say, not that the product lacks it. Kavanah cells describe the product as it ships.
| Criterion | Kavanah | ClickUp | Asana | monday.com |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price | Pay as you go: no seat fee, credits from $10 per 1,000. Or Basic at $3 a seat a month, $2 billed yearly | Unlimited $7 per user a month billed yearly, $10 monthly; in the test table, Core $9 billed yearly [1] | Starter $10.99 per user a month billed annually, $13.49 monthly [5] | Basic $9 a seat a month, billed annually [6] |
| Free option | Starter: up to 5 members, 10 projects, 2 GB, 100 AI credits a month | Free Forever: unlimited members, 60MB storage, 100 automation executions [1] | Personal: 2 users, unlimited storage with a 100MB file limit [5] | Free: up to 2 seats, 3 boards, 3 docs [6] |
| How AI is priced | Credits, about one cent each; 100 a seat a month on Basic, 250 on Pro, pooled; no AI add-on | Brain AI $9 or Everything AI $28 per user a month [3]; in the test table, pooled credits per plan [1] | AI Teammates included; 5 requests per user a month on Starter, on-demand at $0.60 a request [5] | AI credits included, 1,000 a month on Basic in the 10-seat example [6] |
| Bringing work over from ClickUp | CSV import: task name, description, status, priority, assignees, due date, first tag, checklist; 1,000 rows per import | List view exports not on Free, trial on Core, in the test table [1] | Not described | Not described |
| Running beside ClickUp | Agent lists Lists and tasks, creates and updates tasks; writes need approval by default | Not applicable | Not described | Not described |
| Docs, chat and whiteboards | Knowledge library, whiteboards, mind maps, team chat and discussions | Docs on all plans; Chat from Unlimited; 3 whiteboards on Free [1] | Messages and team conversations; notes [5] | Up to 3 docs on Free [6] |
| Native time tracking | On every plan | Trial on Free, included on Unlimited [1] | Through integrations on Starter; native on Advanced [5] | On Pro [6] |
| Automations on the entry plan | Automation rules on every plan; scheduled and automatic AI runs are off until you turn them on | 500 active rules, 1,000 executions a month on Unlimited [1] | Unlimited automations on Starter [5] | 250 actions a month on Standard; Basic not described [6] |
| Outside collaborators | Client portal users are not seats | Guest seats per paid user, plus unlimited read-only guests on paid plans [1] | Unlimited free guests on Starter [5] | Unlimited free viewers on Basic; guest access on Standard [6] |
| AI agents and their controls | AI employees with scoped tools; safe mode, approval policies, action ledger and undo | Super Agents on credits; agents respect user permissions [1][4] | AI Teammates and AI Studio [5] | AI agent workforce, limited on Basic [6] |
| Security attestations named | SOC 2 Type II observation period underway; no report yet | SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 3; ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, 27701, 42001 [4] | SOC 2 Type II [5] | ISO/IEC 27001 and 27018, annual audits [6] |
| SSO and SCIM | SAML 2.0 / OIDC SSO and SCIM on Enterprise | Google SSO on Business; SAML SSO and SCIM on Enterprise [1] | SAML and SCIM on Enterprise [5] | Not described |
#Questions
Questions buyers ask
- What is the best ClickUp alternative?
- It depends on why you are leaving. For a team that wants a focused project tool with less to configure, Asana is the usual choice, and even ClickUp's own comparison page says so. For a team that wants boards with AI credits included in the seat price, monday.com is worth pricing. Kavanah fits teams that want AI agents doing coordination work under real controls, with AI billed as credits and no add-on tier. If your team lives in ClickUp's docs, chat and whiteboards together, staying may be the better call.
- What is the best free ClickUp alternative?
- It depends on team size. ClickUp's own Free Forever plan allows unlimited members with 60MB of storage, which is hard to beat for a large team that stores few files. Asana's free Personal plan and monday.com's Free plan each stop at 2 people. Kavanah's free Starter plan covers up to 5 members, 10 projects, 2 GB of storage and 100 AI credits a month, and its Pay as you go plan drops the seat fee entirely: you pay only for the AI credits you use.
- Can I import my ClickUp tasks into Kavanah?
- Yes, from a CSV export. Kavanah reads task name, description, status, priority, assignees, due date, tags and a checklist column, up to 1,000 rows per import, and can turn each ClickUp status into a board column. Only the first tag on a task is kept, and attachments, custom fields, time entries and docs are not imported, so keep the export and ClickUp as your archive. Check your ClickUp plan first, because not every plan includes list exports.
- Does Kavanah sync with ClickUp both ways?
- Not as an automatic task-for-task sync. The ClickUp connector lets Kavanah's agent list your Spaces, Lists and tasks, create tasks, and update a task's name, description, status and due date, with each write waiting for your approval by default. A background sync indexes your ClickUp tasks so a new one can trigger an automation, but it does not create Kavanah tasks.
- Is Kavanah cheaper than ClickUp?
- On paid plans, per seat, yes. ClickUp lists Unlimited at $7 per user a month billed yearly, or Core at $9 in the plan table it was testing, and its Brain AI add-on at $9 per user a month. Kavanah Basic is $3 a seat a month with 100 AI credits a seat pooled, and Pay as you go has no seat fee at all. Kavanah's AI is metered, so a team that leans hard on its agents should price the credits it will use: a typical agent reply costs about 70 credits.
- Why are there two prices on ClickUp's pricing page?
- On October 25, 2026 ClickUp's pricing page carried two plan tables, labelled in its own markup as a control and a variant of a 2026 pricing test. One lists Free Forever, Unlimited at $7 and Business at $12 per user a month billed yearly, with AI as a separate add-on. The other lists Free, Core at $9, Business at $17 and Max at $100 billed yearly, with AI credits pooled per user. Which one a visitor sees can differ, so confirm the price at checkout.
- Does Kavanah have ClickUp's Spaces, Folders and Lists?
- Close to it. In Kavanah a folder groups projects, a project is a board the way a List is, and tasks have first-class sub-tasks, dependencies, custom statuses per project, custom fields and recurring rules. Folders are one level deep, so a ClickUp Workspace with Spaces and nested Folders flattens to folders and projects. Teams that depend on deep nesting should test that before they move.
- When should a team not leave ClickUp?
- When the team really uses its breadth: docs, chat, whiteboards, Gantt, goals and time tracking in one Workspace, with automations tuned over years. Stay too if you need the certifications ClickUp lists today, such as SOC 2 Type 2 reports and ISO 27001, and your alternative has none yet, or if your free Workspace has many members and few files, where ClickUp's Free Forever plan is hard to beat.
#Go deeper
One question at a time
- ClickUp Pricing in 2026: Two Plan Line-Ups, and What a 10-Person Team Actually PaysOn October 25, 2026 ClickUp's pricing page carried two different plan tables. Here is what each one costs a 10-person team once AI is counted, and how that compares with Asana, monday.com and Kavanah.
- ClickUp Brain and AI Credits Explained: What Is Unlimited and What Is MeteredClickUp Brain is sold as unlimited, and ClickUp also sells AI Super Credits. Here is which ClickUp AI features are unlimited, which draw on credits, what extra credits cost, and how that compares with metering every AI action on one meter.
- How to Move Off ClickUp With a CSV, and Exactly What You LoseMoving from ClickUp to another tool usually means a CSV. Here is how to check your export, what Kavanah reads from it, what it leaves behind, and how to keep an archive you can trust.
- ClickUp Too Complex? Simpler Alternatives, and When You Should StayClickUp's breadth is the reason teams choose it and the reason some leave. Here is how to tell whether your problem is ClickUp or your setup, what simpler tools trade away, and when staying is the right call.
Related reading
- Agentic project managementWhat AI employees do inside Kavanah, and the controls that keep them in bounds.
- Jira alternativeThe same honest comparison for teams leaving Jira, with what each tool imports from it.
- PricingPay as you go credits, per-seat plans with a pooled allowance, and the free Starter plan.
- IntegrationsClickUp, Jira, Asana, monday.com, Notion, GitHub, Slack and the rest of the connectors.
- Project management software for tech companiesThe engineering buyer's checklist, with a comparison against Jira, Linear, Asana and monday dev.
Sources
- [1] ClickUp Pricing and Plans — ClickUp, 2026, updated
- [2] ClickUp vs. Asana comparison, pricing and features — ClickUp, 2026
- [3] ClickUp Brain² — ClickUp, 2026, updated
- [4] Security — ClickUp, 2026, updated
- [5] Asana Pricing: Personal, Starter, Advanced and Enterprise plans — Asana, 2026, updated
- [6] monday.com pricing and plans — monday.com, 2026, updated
Sources and the comparison were checked on October 25, 2026. Product details change; check each vendor's own pages before you decide.
Run it on your own work.
Free to start, priced per seat from $3 a month with AI usage metered in credits.