Wrike vs Monday vs Resource Guru
If you’ve been googling like crazy trying to find and compare suitable project management solutions for your organization, you’re bound to have come across two of the heavyweights in this space, Wrike and monday.com.
Let’s not beat around the bush, these are both great project management tools—but they’re not right for every team.
If you’re comparing Wrike vs Monday and are still on the fence, we want to show you why Resource Guru might be a better option for managing your project resources and schedules.
timesheets tool that helps you assign and manage your team’s workload so that their time and energy remain in balance for every project. It features unique and powerful resource management tools that keep your teams happy and productive while preventing project breakdowns and burnout.
In this guide, we’ll be looking at how Resource Guru compares to Monday and Wrike so you can decide which is the best option for you.
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Wrike vs Monday vs Resource Guru
These software platforms both have their strengths and weaknesses, and they’re best suited for different kinds of businesses and team setups.
Wrike is owned by Citrix, and as such, it has a focus on solving complex task management problems for enterprise-level companies. This is reflected in the pricing and the learning curve, both of which can be overwhelming if you’re a smaller business.
Monday.com is a popular project management tool used by big names like Coca-Cola, Hulu, and Canva, but it’s equally suitable for smaller companies as it is for enterprise. It has tons of great features, and the learning curve isn’t anywhere near as steep as Wrike’s.
The major downside to this platform is that if you’re a company on a smaller budget, you won’t enjoy as much functionality as you’d have on the higher-priced tiers.
Features like time tracking, task dependencies, generous integrations, and custom automation allowances aren’t available until the Pro plan or above, and these are some of its best features. So along with Wrike, this tends to make Monday more of a high-end enterprise solution at heart.
Resource Guru tries to do less and is more accessible and affordable because of that. Its core focus is on helping teams manage the resources that projects need to succeed (both human and non-human).
The unique resource scheduling features help teams manage not only their project deadlines, but also their time and energy across projects—without the need to worry about dependencies. It’s a user-friendly tool that’s suitable for use across multiple industries and company sizes.
Why choose Resource Guru over Monday or Wrike?
Wrike and Monday are brand leaders when it comes to task sequencing, but they don’t protect your most valuable resources from being overused and overworked—your employees. This is where Resource Guru shines.
Let’s take a look at the key benefits of Resource Guru when compared with Wrike and Monday.
Ideal for people-focused companies
When people think about project management, it’s usually in terms of laying out tasks and deadlines. But for everything to come together holistically, resource management and time tracking needs to be factored in as well.
Although Wrike and Monday do have some resource planning capabilities, they’re much more focused on managing the tasks themselves, rather than managing individual people’s time and workloads.
Wrike is designed more for teams in large companies who want to manage things like “issues” in a similar way to Jira. Customer reviews mention how Wrike is excellent at handling assignments, time management, tasks, and approvals.
Most of Wrike’s best features also rely heavily on integrations – which is great if you’re working in-house, but tough if you’re wanting to share permissions outside of that. Many of the reviews for Wrike on G2 mention things like “I wish there were greater levels of permissions” and “user permissions are sometimes a challenge for our team.”
Like Wrike, monday.com is a great all-round platform for task sequencing, but is lacking in people-focused elements. It’s fairly straightforward in terms of setup, but it can get technical if you make use of all the automations, customizations, and integration features that are offered – and the dashboard can start to feel cluttered once you add a lot of project work into the mix.
In comparison, Resource Guru was built from the perspective of running a busy agency and solves all the problems that companies face when working on multiple projects at once. These resourcing issues are amplified at agencies, but relevant to companies across all industries.
Juggling resource scheduling, capacity planning, leave and vacation management, double bookings, and working with contractors can quickly throw timelines out of sync if something gets overlooked (or overbooked), leaving teams, managers, and clients stressed and unhappy.
This is why leading brands like NASA, Accenture, and L’Oreal have turned to Resource Guru to ensure their resources are never overloaded and that they always have a clear picture of who’s doing what, and when.
With Resource Guru’s flexible, people-focused approach to effortlessly accurate timesheets, which means no more chasing submissions at the end of every week.
“Resource Guru is simple to use. It allows us to optimize our resources and keeps an eye on every project.”
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The learning curve
When it comes to software comparisons, ease of use is often a critical factor in the decision-making process.
Can you drop into the new tool, play around with it for a bit, and then get straight to work? Or will you need to set aside extra time and budget to train your teams, set up frameworks, and learn how to use the platform? Will you need ongoing coaching? Or do you just want the reassurance that a friendly support person is there to help you if you get stuck?
Let’s start with the most user-friendly out of these three platforms.
Resource Guru is built to be “blissfully simple.” Users frequently comment that it’s “easy to plan and allocate resources across projects” and that they’re “able to use Resource Guru with little to no formal training – it’s very intuitive.” So while this platform is designed to manage a complex web of projects and resources, it also makes it a breeze to do so.
Monday is the next step up in terms of learning curves. It’s fairly easy to use when you only need the standard project management features – but once you start to add integrations, connect APIs, and set up automations, that’s when things start to get tricky. Some users comment that the interface is buggy, and that it’s hard to find even simple functions within the numerous dropdowns.
While customers love the flexibility and customization options offered by Monday – they also mention that “Because it is so comprehensive, it can be difficult to understand each functionality at times”, and that “Having so much freedom might make it difficult to keep everything together at times”.
So, more features aren’t necessarily a bonus when it comes to flattening the learning curve!
Compared to both Monday and Resource Guru, Wrike is at the top end of the learning difficulty scale. But if you’re willing to trade the user-friendly aspect for the dizzying amount of features offered by this software, and you can handle the time and costs needed to overcome the learning curve – then it could be a great fit for you.
Wrike is probably the most comprehensive project management software out there, and your team can work almost exclusively in the Wrike dashboard due to the advanced integrations and workflows. Features are being added and improved all the time as this product develops, but customers mention that “every change has a learning curve” as well, so this is something to keep in mind.
If you’re specifically looking for a platform that’s highly functional and easy to use – Resource Guru should be your top choice out of these three.
Brilliantly simple resource management
It’s here that Resource Guru excels in comparison to Wrike and Monday. We all know that successful projects rely on the humans who’ll be working on them – and this factor is something that’s often overlooked when choosing a project management tool.
Resource Guru has specific features focused on maximizing your team’s efficiency and productivity – making it a better choice for many companies than general project management software.
Resource Guru was built to help companies manage their project resources – not just the projects themselves. Wrike and Monday are great for task-based project planning like subtasks and deadlines, but they’re missing the elements of human planning.
They don’t take into account basic factors such as whether a team member has booked leave or vacation during a project, whether they’re working in different time zones – or if they’re overbooked with other work outside of a specific project.
This can lead to timelines quickly getting out of hand, deadlines whizzing past, and team members feeling stressed and angry. But it doesn’t need to be that way.
Resource Guru prevents all of these issues (and more) with built-in systems for leave management, clash management, and capacity planning. The drag-and-drop functions in Resource Guru’s Schedule make it super simple to move resources around to take into account who’s working when, and what their workload looks like already. This means smoother timelines – and happier teams!
A huge bonus is that users in Resource Guru can manage their own availability and customize their working hours to match their unique schedule. Team members can also book time off and change their time zones if they’re working remotely and traveling.
Managers can see who’s working at any given time, and who’s over or under-utilized before they book any more work in. This prevents yet another task being assigned when a team member doesn’t have the physical space or mental energy for it.
Remember that your employees are all busy trying to achieve their work and life goals, and Resource Guru helps them get closer to both of these things – without them imploding in the process.
Non-human resources
If we haven’t talked up Resource Guru’s stellar resource management capabilities enough – it also helps you plan and manage your non-human resources. Monday and Wrike don’t offer this feature.
If your projects need to take into account things like meeting rooms, vehicles, or equipment use, you can schedule all of these in your dashboard, and move them around easily so they sync up with when your teams and projects need them.
You can even schedule downtime for non-human resources so everyone is aware when a van, printer, or any other piece of equipment is down for maintenance. Resource Guru’s custom fields also give you the power to organize your non-human resources any way you want, so you can find what you need fast.
So when you’re looking at Wrike vs Monday vs Resource Guru, ask yourself if it’s project management or resource management that you need the most.
Simple, transparent pricing structure
Both Monday and Resource Guru have pricing models that are easy to understand at a glance – but Wrike comes with a few hidden costs for users. One Wrike user went so far as to say “the pricing can be tricky and sketchy – carefully check your contract before you sign it.”
As we mentioned earlier, Wrike’s enterprise-focused features mean that it’s priced accordingly. It also relies quite heavily on integrations – so you’ll most likely be paying ongoing subscription fees for extra third-party software. There are also certifications, add-ons, and training that you’ll need to pay extra to access, which puts the platform out of reach for many small and mid-level companies.
G2 reviewers comment that “the tiered pricing and features can be pretty confusing, so make sure that you understand the add-ons and the associated costs” and that while there were no major downsides with Wrike as a tool, “the biggest issue was the pricing.”
Monday is a solid standalone platform which has integrations and automations if you need them. It has so many features on the top tiers that your organization might not need a lot of them, which means you’ll be paying for things you aren’t using.
On the flipside, the Basic tier of Monday doesn’t have all the juicy features like Gantt, timeline, and calendar views – and the Standard plan is still missing time tracking, dependencies, private boards, and chart views. You’ll need to subscribe to the Pro plan at the very least to access all of these.
With Monday’s pricing, it’s a case of doing your homework on the features you need vs the budget you have to spend on a project management platform.
While both Wrike and Monday offer more project management features, Resource Guru is better for people-focused companies who need the ability to easily manage their team resources and work capacity. The simple, transparent pricing model is easy to understand and is excellent value for money compared with the other two platforms.
For example, a team of 40 would set you back:
- $320 per month on Resource Guru’s Master Plan
- $800 per month on monday.com’s Pro plan
- $992 per month on Wrike’s Business plan (not including add-ons).
So, what’s best out of Wrike vs monday.com?
Your company has unique needs in terms of project and resource management, so you’ll need to weigh up your priorities in terms of “must-have” and “nice-to-have” features before you make a decision.
If you’re looking for a platform that’s simple to use, with a simple pricing model, then monday.com and Resource Guru are the clear winners over Wrike, which comes with a challenging learning curve and hidden costs.
Resource Guru doesn’t have a lot of the enterprise-level features offered by Wrike or monday.com, but it’s the perfect solution if you’ve been struggling to schedule the right resources at the right time across your projects. Plus, paired with pre-filled timesheets—it’s a winner.
With unique features like clash management, leave planning, and timesheets—it gives teams flexibility and control over their own time, and ensures that managers aren’t overbooking their human or non-human resources.
This means happier humans, higher team morale, and more successful projects.
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