Comparison

ByDesign

monday.com

ByDesign vs monday.com

monday.com runs a company’s boards. ByDesign runs your days, weeks and goals.

monday.com is a work platform: boards of items with status, date, people and timeline columns, Kanban, with Gantt and calendar views on Standard and up, dashboards, Workdocs, automations, 850+ integrations, and Sidekick, an AI assistant with agents and routines on AI credits. ByDesign is a planner for one person first: goals the AI turns into a scheduled plan you approve, a calendar that syncs both ways, habits with streaks, goal pages, Hub courses, a Pomodoro timer and a year-to-day canvas, with sharing, chat and per-seat team plans when you need them.

Try ByDesign free See the comparison

What you get with ByDesign that monday.com doesn’t offer

A plan from your goal, scheduled for you
Say a goal and ByDesign writes the tasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines and places them on your calendar with a preview you approve. monday’s Sidekick “can generate project plans with owners and deadlines” and acts with your approval, on AI credits; it plans boards, not a time-blocked week on your calendar.
A calendar that syncs both ways
Edit an event in ByDesign or in Google and Apple Calendar and both stay right, with Outlook and ICS subscriptions too, plus auto-scheduling around your hours. monday syncs due dates to Google Calendar through automations and offers Outlook integrations; a calendar view comes with Standard and up.
Habits, goals, courses and focus for one person
A habit tracker with streaks, personal goal pages, Hub courses you can schedule, a Pomodoro timer and time tracking on every task. monday has automations, Goals and OKRs tied to boards, 200+ templates, and a time tracking column on Pro.
Your whole year on one canvas
Year, quarter, month, week and day on one zoomable surface, with sticky notes, images and pinned pages. monday shows calendar, Timeline and Gantt views on Standard and up, and whiteboards are a separate product, WorkCanvas.

ByDesign vs monday.com, feature by feature

Only the differences. What both apps do the same is listed underneath.

Included
Limited
Not available

Feature	ByDesign	monday.com
AI planning
AI goal plans	Included: Built and scheduledTasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines land on your calendar; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: Sidekick project plans“It can generate project plans with owners and deadlines”, on AI credits; no plan built from a personal goal onto your calendar
AI scheduling with a preview you approve	Included: Preview, then acceptConflicts shown; nothing saves until you say so; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: Sidekick, with approvalConnected to Google Calendar, it plans work and updates timelines, and asks before acting; no time-blocked week of your tasks is described
Auto-schedule around your hours	Included: Rules you setWork hours, breaks, buffers, max hours a day, split long tasks	Not available: Workload viewShows team capacity; no auto-scheduling of your own tasks
Voice control	Included: Mic and hands-freeOptional wake phrase; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: Sidekick mobile“Voice interactions” in the Sidekick app
Calendar and views
Two-way calendar sync	Included: Google and AppleEdit events in either place; Outlook and ICS subscriptions too	Limited: Google due dates and Outlook integrationsSync due dates to Google Calendar through automations; direction isn’t stated; calendar view on Standard and up
Year-to-day planning canvas	Included: Year to dayYear, quarter, month, week and day on one zoomable surface; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: Calendar, Timeline and Gantt on Standard and upGantt zooms from day to year; no planning canvas
Sticky notes, images and pinned pages on the calendar	Included: Yes	Not available: WorkCanvas is a separate product
Habits, goals and focus
Habit tracker	Included: Check-ins and streaksSkip a day, stats, habits with friends	Not available: Automations and Sidekick routines instead
Goals with progress	Included: Goal pagesTasks, resources, percent complete, shareable	Limited: Goals and OKRsCompany, team and individual objectives tied to boards, with progress that updates as work completes; built for OKRs, not personal goal pages
Courses and roadmaps from the Hub	Included: The HubCourses, roadmaps and a habit library; schedule a roadmap straight onto your calendar	Not available: 200+ templates and monday academy
Pomodoro timer	Included: Built in25/5/15 cycles with a floating timer	Not available: Not among the features monday lists
Time tracking on tasks	Included: Start and pause on any taskTotals per task; “most tracked” filter	Limited: Time tracking column on Pro
Collaboration and platforms
Built-in chat	Included: Direct and groupThreads, reactions, polls	Limited: Updates and @mentions on items
Apps	Included: Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, iPad and Android	Limited: Web, Windows, iOS and AndroidA Windows desktop app; on Mac, the iPad app through the App Store

AI planning

AI goal plans
ByDesign
Included: Built and scheduledTasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines land on your calendar; AI and AI Plus plans
monday.com
Limited: Sidekick project plans“It can generate project plans with owners and deadlines”, on AI credits; no plan built from a personal goal onto your calendar
AI scheduling with a preview you approve
ByDesign
Included: Preview, then acceptConflicts shown; nothing saves until you say so; AI and AI Plus plans
monday.com
Limited: Sidekick, with approvalConnected to Google Calendar, it plans work and updates timelines, and asks before acting; no time-blocked week of your tasks is described
Auto-schedule around your hours
ByDesign
Included: Rules you setWork hours, breaks, buffers, max hours a day, split long tasks
monday.com
Not available: Workload viewShows team capacity; no auto-scheduling of your own tasks
Voice control
ByDesign
Included: Mic and hands-freeOptional wake phrase; AI and AI Plus plans
monday.com
Limited: Sidekick mobile“Voice interactions” in the Sidekick app

Calendar and views

Two-way calendar sync
ByDesign
Included: Google and AppleEdit events in either place; Outlook and ICS subscriptions too
monday.com
Limited: Google due dates and Outlook integrationsSync due dates to Google Calendar through automations; direction isn’t stated; calendar view on Standard and up
Year-to-day planning canvas
ByDesign
Included: Year to dayYear, quarter, month, week and day on one zoomable surface; AI and AI Plus plans
monday.com
Limited: Calendar, Timeline and Gantt on Standard and upGantt zooms from day to year; no planning canvas
Sticky notes, images and pinned pages on the calendar
ByDesign
Included: Yes
monday.com
Not available: WorkCanvas is a separate product

Habits, goals and focus

Habit tracker
ByDesign
Included: Check-ins and streaksSkip a day, stats, habits with friends
monday.com
Not available: Automations and Sidekick routines instead
Goals with progress
ByDesign
Included: Goal pagesTasks, resources, percent complete, shareable
monday.com
Limited: Goals and OKRsCompany, team and individual objectives tied to boards, with progress that updates as work completes; built for OKRs, not personal goal pages
Courses and roadmaps from the Hub
ByDesign
Included: The HubCourses, roadmaps and a habit library; schedule a roadmap straight onto your calendar
monday.com
Not available: 200+ templates and monday academy
Pomodoro timer
ByDesign
Included: Built in25/5/15 cycles with a floating timer
monday.com
Not available: Not among the features monday lists
Time tracking on tasks
ByDesign
Included: Start and pause on any taskTotals per task; “most tracked” filter
monday.com
Limited: Time tracking column on Pro

Collaboration and platforms

Built-in chat
ByDesign
Included: Direct and groupThreads, reactions, polls
monday.com
Limited: Updates and @mentions on items
Apps
ByDesign
Included: Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, iPad and Android
monday.com
Limited: Web, Windows, iOS and AndroidA Windows desktop app; on Mac, the iPad app through the App Store

monday.com column based on pricing, Sidekick, MCP, Workdocs, automations, integrations, developer docs, Gantt and views, agents, goals and OKRs and Gantt view on October 26, 2026. If something has changed, email info@bydesign.io.

Both apps cover the basics

An AI assistant inside the app
Kanban boards
Docs with embeds
Dashboards with widgets
Items with subitems, dates and people
Assignees, updates and shared boards
Per-seat team plans
MCP server for AI assistants
Multiple interface languages

Try ByDesign free

Why people switch from monday.com to ByDesign

Say the goal. Get a scheduled plan.

Tell ByDesign what you want to achieve. It asks a few questions, then builds the tasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines and schedules them around the life you already have. Replan in one message.

monday.com: In monday.com you build a board, add items with owners and dates, and let Sidekick draft a project plan or run routines on AI credits. The plan behind a personal goal, and the schedule to fit it into your week, stay yours to write.

ByDesign AI goal plan with tasks, tags and durations

A schedule you approve, not one you drag

Set your hours, breaks and buffers once. ByDesign places tasks into the gaps, splits long ones, shows the proposed week and waits for your OK. Replan after a busy day in one message.

monday.com: monday schedules by date and timeline columns, with a Workload view for team capacity and a Meeting Scheduler agent for meetings. No time-blocked week of your own tasks is described.

ByDesign week view with the planning assistant previewing changes

Habits, goals and focus, built in

Track habits with streaks and stats, keep goal pages with progress, run a Pomodoro and track time on any task. Open ByDesign in the morning and it already works.

monday.com: monday has automations and Sidekick routines for repeating work, Goals and OKRs for team and individual objectives, and a time tracking column on Pro. There is no habit tracker and no Pomodoro timer.

ByDesign reminders, habits and deadlines on iOS

Your whole year on one surface

The planning canvas zooms from the full year down to a single day. Pin goals, notes and milestones where they belong, drag anything, and the plan keeps up.

monday.com: monday’s calendar, Timeline and Gantt views come with Standard and up. Gantt zooms out to a year, but there is no canvas and no sticky notes on the plan; WorkCanvas is a separate product.

ByDesign planning canvas showing a full year of plans

Don’t take our word for it.

From E
I really like ByDesign - a lot. I was looking for something that works for me but is also simple and intuitive enough to work for my 12 yr old daughter who needs to start planning out her homework and chores around her other calendar events. I think this is it - and I have looked at a lot of your competitors - Notion, Motion, Tick Tick, To-Do, Todoist. None have the simplicity of user interface combined with the rich features (but not overly complex). love it😍
From Narovsky
Hello! Just found byDesign less than 8 hours ago, and I’m blown away. It has the best of Workflowy (10 yr customer now), Notion, Google Calendar and ICQ (haha)! Oh and a neat Facebook too -- minus the obscure relatives and friends that rant-post too often. Anyhoo, just wanted to say you guys are working on a winner here
App Store Review
I have tried pretty much every calendar app and this one is the best I’ve tried.

See All The Love →

Make the switch in three steps

No workspace to design. Start free, connect the calendar you already use, and give ByDesign your first goal.

Start your free trial. No credit card.
Connect your Google, Apple or Outlook calendar.
Say your first goal and watch the plan land on your calendar.

Ready for a planner that fits your life?

Start free. No credit card. Tell ByDesign a goal and watch the plan land on your calendar.