Is there still a point in talking about a market for collaborative work management solutions?
Gartner continues to frame it within its Magic Quadrant. Last year, it acknowledged that the boundaries were blurring with offerings drawn from adjacent segments (project management, intranets, development tools, cloud office suites…) tending to develop such capabilities.
The same dynamic is mentioned this year, but in the opposite direction: as AI takes hold, collaborative work management solutions are entering into competition with business applications that fall under other segments in the American firm’s taxonomy.
This phenomenon is also driven by the proliferation of what Gartner calls “use-case accelerators.” In a sense, starter kits combining data models, workflows and plug-and-play configurations. A value proposition that reduces, at least on paper, the need for specialized applications.
9 vendors… all “Leaders” or nearly so
From year to year, the inclusion criteria for the Magic Quadrant have changed little. On the functional side, one had to broadly cover planning, collaboration (including content creation), workflows and automation, reporting and analytics, while also providing the aforementioned “use-case accelerators.” An additional element: “intelligent assistance.” This encompasses capabilities based on generative AI, including content creation and editing, product usage help and workflow optimization.
The vendors are evaluated on two axes. One forward-looking (“vision”), focused on strategies (industry, geography, go-to-market, marketing, product…). The other intended to reflect the ability to actually meet demand (“execution”: customer experience, pre-sales performance, product/service quality…).
The 9 providers named are the same as last year. In 2024, they were five in the Leaders quadrant… and the other four were not far behind. A year later, seven are Leaders and the remaining two are even closer.
The scenario on the “execution” axis:
| Rank | Vendor | Year-over-year change |
| 1 | monday.com | + 1 |
| 2 | Smartsheet | – 1 |
| 3 | Asana | = |
| 4 | Adobe | = |
| 5 | Airtable | + 1 |
| 6 | Wrike | – 1 |
| 7 | Atlassian | = |
| 8 | ClickUp | = |
| 9 | Quickbase | = |
Customer experience and product quality carried significant weight in the scoring. Viability (financial health and likelihood of continued investment in the solution) carried a medium weight. Commercial and marketing execution carried a lower weight.
On the “vision” axis:
| Rank | Vendor | Year-over-year change |
| 1 | monday.com | = |
| 2 | Asana | = |
| 3 | Smartsheet | = |
| 4 | Airtable | = |
| 5 | Wrike | = |
| 6 | ClickUp | + 1 |
| 7 | Quickbase | + 2 |
| 8 | Atlassian | = |
| 9 | Adobe | – 3 |
Product strategy carried significant weight in the scoring. Innovation, a medium weight. Market understanding, a low weight, as did commercial, marketing and geographical strategies. Sector strategy was not scored.
From channel to sectorial solutions, development elements at Airtable
Airtable stands out as much for its low-code component as for the scalability of its HyperDB backbone. Gartner also praises innovation in AI, with an approach that combines a global chatbot and embedded agents within applications.
At scale, it can be challenging to maintain coherent governance of customized apps. Also watch the learning curve for those new to database concepts. Gartner also notes that Airtable is currently expanding its presence beyond its core market (physical presence, channel, datacenters) and into sector-specific solutions.
With Asana, beware the learning curve
A positive note for Asana is its brand recognition, its community, and the adoption rate for certain uses (work planning, in particular). Gartner also values the Work Graph architecture, linking the data model that underpins it to the AI agents embedded within. It also notes the comprehensiveness of its offering for task and project management as well as for tracking objectives and results.
Because of its breadth, Asana is likely to present a certain learning curve. Gartner also notes room for improvement in the sectoral approach: some use cases may not be effectively covered. The firm also notes that Asana’s revenue growth has slowed, while headcount has not increased. Potentially a sign, it suggests, of a product-led growth model (the product as the main means of acquisition, as opposed to sales-led or marketing-led).
Atlassian: weaknesses in asset and time management
Atlassian stands out for its market presence and its reputation, particularly among developers and IT. It also benefits from its ecosystem (partners, a well-stocked marketplace, certification of third-party products…). And its pricing is seen as transparent and competitive.
Some products tend to overlap (Gartner cites Trello and Jira), making Atlassian’s offering potentially hard to parse. It also has a commercial and marketing approach less developed than competitors in the sector-specific aspect. Functionally, weaknesses exist in asset management, resource allocation and time tracking.
ClickUp, not deployed at the same scale as direct competitors
Gartner notes notable growth in ClickUp’s customer base and active users. It also highlights ease of use, both at the interface level and in the flexibility offered for task management, with minimal initial configuration. A plus also in the convergence of “work-knowledge-communication,” which minimizes context switching.
Outside the European Union, ClickUp’s geographic footprint is limited. Its largest deployments are smaller than those of direct competitors (lower data volumes and fewer simultaneous users). As for its partner network, it is “evolving,” as is its targeting of sectors and industries (no dedicated commercial program).
Pricing, core functionality… The trade-offs of monday.com’s “accelerators”
monday.com enjoys brand recognition driven by its generous free tier, its intuitively designed UX and its effective targeting of influencer channels across several sectors. Another differentiator: its “accelerators” (CRM, software development, service management…), which begin to compete with business apps. Gartner also appreciates investments in data lifecycle management and API-driven customization.
On the upside, the accelerators can simultaneously limit investments in the core functionality. They also bring pricing complexity for those seeking a multi-use solution. Gartner also recommends verifying the availability of expertise in geographic areas where monday.com is primarily indirect.
Smartsheet: the complexities of the new licensing model
Smartsheet scores well functionally, proving suitable for complex workflows requiring elasticity. Its project management, resource management and reporting components tend to be favored by large enterprises. Other strengths: its reputation (Smartsheet is the vendor most frequently benchmarked in Gartner inquiries) and the content collaboration aspects (versioning, audit trails, revision with discussion threads).
Last year, Gartner reminded that Smartsheet would revert to private ownership and urged attention to potential impacts on visibility of strategy, roadmap and results. It notes nonetheless this year that the transition has been completed (January 2025). In the interim, revenue and headcount growth have been slower than among top competitors. The shift to a per-user subscription model created reconciliation and license-management complexities; complexities amplified by the removal of the free collaborator option.
The Wrike marketplace, lacking key capabilities
The Klaxoon acquisition has strengthened Wrike’s capabilities in visual collaboration and opened the way for developing AI agents around this component. Gartner also values data-management capabilities (synchronization with third-party systems, no-code engine with prebuilt connectors…). And pricing is seen as transparent, competitive, and particularly accessible to small teams as well as multi-use deployments.
Like Smartsheet, the business momentum is not positive, with revenue and customer growth lagging and overall visibility limited. Physical presence remains limited in certain regions and the partner network is not the broadest in this market. Key services are also missing on the marketplace (self-service publishing, user reviews and discussions).
