Monday CRM vs Salesforce-Based AscendixRE CRM

The market of commercial real estate software and CRMs is full of various solutions, some of which may not be industry-tailored or include relevant functionality. However, brokers implement and use them for different purposes. An example of such a solution is Monday CRM, which is supported by monday.com.

Even though Monday CRM leans more towards workflow management rather than a commercial real estate CRM, it is a popular solution among brokers.

In this blog post, we’ll compare Monday CRM with AscendixRE CRM and analyze which solution is more beneficial for brokers: generic like Monday CRM or industry-tailored like AscendixRE.

AscendixRE CRM vs Monday CRM at a Glance

AscendixRE CRM

AscendixRE Home Page

Founded: 1996

Number of integrations: 3,000+ apps

Price: from $79-$129

AscendixRE CRM is a Salesforce-based CRM platform specifically designed for commercial real estate professionals. Due to the solid Salesforce nature, AscendixRE CRM can be seamlessly integrated with other Salesforce products available on AppExchange marketplace.

Additionally, AscendixRE inherits the reliability, security, and scalability of the Salesforce platform. As a result, AscendixRE CRM contains all the functionality of Salesforce accompanied by specific CRE-tailored CRM features.

Beyond its core CRM functionality, AscendixRE CRM offers three supplementary modules:

• Ascendix Search: An advanced search tool equipped with a mapping component, catering to all record types and empowering users with comprehensive data retrieval capabilities.
• Composer: A versatile publication tool that facilitates the generation of CRE marketing collaterals, providing flexibility and efficiency in content creation and document generation.
• MarketSpace: Tailored for online listing publication and secure deal closure through collaboration rooms, ensuring streamlined transactions in a secure digital environment.

For a deeper dive into AscendixRE CRM’s capabilities, check out the informative video below.

Monday CRM

Founded: 2012

Number of integrations: 70+ integrations, 200+ apps

Price: Starting at $12/seat/month

Monday is a cloud-based collaboration app, workflow management system, and project management solution. While it can be adapted for use in various industries, including commercial real estate, its primary focus is on general project management and team collaboration rather than industry-specific functionality.

For the commercial real estate industry, Monday.com CRM offers customized workflows, property boards, Map view, sync of contacts to the relevant property, etc.

Monday.com CRM is a versatile project management and collaboration platform that offers customizable workflows and boards to organize tasks, projects, and team activities.

AscendixRE vs Monday CRM: Features Comparison

In this passage, we compare the features sets of both CRM solutions so you can identify whether generic or industry-tailored CRM is better and more beneficial for your CRE business.

We’ll analyze AscendixRE CRM and Monday.com CRM based on 6 criteria:

• Ease of use
• Company’s size
• Features set for commercial real estate
• Integrations
• Price
• Support

Criteria #1. Ease of use

AscendixRE CRM

AscendixRE CRM offers a user-friendly interface tailored specifically for commercial real estate (CRE) brokers, prioritizing intuitive navigation and streamlined workflows. Its design focuses on simplicity without sacrificing functionality, allowing brokers to easily manage property listings, track deals, and collaborate with team members.

AscendixRE’s ease of use is further enhanced by its customization options, enabling brokers to personalize the CRM to their specific needs and preferences. With features like drag-and-drop functionality, customizable dashboards, and user-friendly search capabilities, AscendixRE empowers brokers to efficiently access and organize critical information.

Drag and Drop Functionality | AscendixRE CRM

Monday.com CRM

In comparison, Monday.com CRM also offers a user-friendly interface, but its focus is more on general project management and collaboration rather than industry-specific functionality for CRE brokers. While Monday.com provides customizable workflows and boards, adapting the platform to meet the unique needs of CRE brokers may require additional configuration and customization.

Overall, both AscendixRE CRM and Monday.com CRM offer ease of use for commercial real estate brokers, but AscendixRE’s specialized focus on the CRE industry and tailored features may provide a more seamless experience for brokers in this target audience.

Criteria #2. Company’s size

AscendixRE CRM

AscendixRE is primarily utilized by individual brokers and mid-sized brokerages. However, many of these users and teams originate from large multinational corporations such as JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, and CRESA, making up an impressive user base.

Monday.com CRM

At the same time, due to its primary focus on general project management and collaboration, Monday.com CRM is more suitable for individual brokers and smaller brokerages that require a versatile solution for team coordination and task management.

Overall, Monday.com is more suitable for individual brokers and small teams, whereas AscendixRE’s specialized features for commercial real estate and scalability may make it particularly well-suited for mid-sized to larger brokerages with complex needs in the CRE industry.

Criteria #3. Feature Set for CRE

AscendixRE CRM

AscendixRE CRM is designed SPECIFICALLY for commercial real estate industry. It offers specialized tools and features for managing property listings, tracking deals, lease management, contact management, document generation, collaboration with team members, and much more.

Notable examples of AscendixRE’s features for CRE include:

• Multi-family functionality
• Prospective properties/investors related to deal
• Stacking plans module
• Geomapping search of Properties/Availabilities/Contacts/Opportunities
• Radius search and zip code search on the map
• Prebuilt commercial real estate Fields
• Outlook & Gmail integration
• Custom dashboards and reports for brokers
• Enhanced email marketing – powered by Mailchimp
• Commission calculations
• Automated capture of Inquiries from LoopNet
• Virtual deal rooms/collaboration rooms
• Public listing portal

It’s important to note that the feature set presented in AscendixRE CRM is continuously evolving, with the Ascendix team actively working to meet the evolving needs of CRE brokers and agents.

Monday.com CRM

Monday CRM is good for document management, data storage, and basic communication. However, it doesn’t include the functionality required for commercial real estate prospecting, lead generation, automated data capture, advanced Property/Contacts/Opportunities map search, advanced mass email campaigns, and CRE marketing automation.

The features in Monday.com CRM that CRE brokers find most beneficial include:

• Customizable Workflows meaning that brokers can create custom boards and workflows to organize tasks, projects, and transactions related to commercial real estate deals;
• File-sharing functionality within the CRM platform that ensures seamless collaboration with clients, agents, and stakeholders;
• Shared calendars where brokers can manage calendar bookings, appointments, deadlines and set up automated reminders;
• Ability to leave comments, mentions, and notifications for effective communication with team members, clients, and partners;
• Data analysis tools and customizable reporting features to gain insights into business performance, track productivity, and optimize workflows.

Criteria #4. Integrations

AscendixRE CRM

AscendixRE CRM as a Salesforce-based solution contains 3000+ integrations available on AppExchange. Users can choose what integration they’d like to deploy into their CRM platform. These can be either generic, like integration with Microsoft Outlook and Google Workspace, or niche integrations, e.g., Formstack, GIS integrations, or client portal integrations.

Users can submit reviews, share comments and experiences of using specific integrations available on AppExchange meaning that solutions are constantly evolving due to a wide community of users.

AscendixRE’s Salesforce nature provides access to all AppExchange integrations.

In terms of custom integrations, AscendiRE has recently announced integration with Mailchimp that facilitates streamlined email marketing campaigns, while DocuSign integration expedites the contract signing process by enabling electronic document management within the CRM platform.

It’s worth mentioning that AscendixRE CRM also integrates with various property data providers, empowering brokers with access to real-time commercial real estate property data and market trends directly within the CRM interface.

Brokers can also develop custom functionality or integrate AscendixRE with other systems, and act as CRM Admins.

Monday.com CRM

Monday.com CRM offers integration with communication tools like Twilio (for sending SMS messages and making phone calls directly from the platform), Aircall (for capturing contact information, call recordings, tags, notes, etc).

It also integrates with Gmail and Outlook so you can track emails, schedule follow-ups, and manage communication history by linking emails to relevant items.

Among that, Monday.com CRM includes analytics tools integrated with marketing channels and chat bot for lead qualification.

Overall, Monday.com CRM offers 200+ integrations and apps.

Criteria #5. Pricing

AscendixRE CRM

AscendixRE offers 3 pricing plans tailored to accommodate various needs and budgets within the commercial real estate industry. These plans are designed to be cost-effective for both smaller and mid-sized brokerages, providing flexibility and scalability as businesses grow.

• AscendixRE Foundations ($79/user/mo): This plan includes basic CRM functionality such as Deal/Account/Contact management, data deduplication, and multifamily functionality. Additionally, users receive two hours of consulting and interactive training upon signup to ensure a smooth onboarding process.
• AscendixRE Enterprise ($99/user/mo): The Enterprise plan offers all AscendixRE CRM functionality, including advanced search, geo-mapping capabilities (Ascendix Search), and access to the brochure generation tool (Composer), empowering brokers with advanced tools for property management and analysis.
• AscendixRE Unlimited ($129/user/mo): With the Unlimited plan, users gain access to all AscendixRE CRM features, Ascendix Search, Composer, and a property listings portal called MarketSpace, providing a comprehensive solution for brokerage operations.

Moreover, each pricing plan covers the Salesforce license and offers the ability to import accounts and contacts using original data template mapping, ensuring seamless integration and data management within the CRM platform.

Monday.com CRM

While specific pricing details may vary based on the product type brokers choose (Sales CRM, Work Management, or Dev), their individual needs and customization, Monday.com typically offers the following pricing tiers:

• Free Plan (up to 2 seats): This plan is suitable for freelancers of individual professionals and includes Up to 3 boards, Unlimited docs, 200+ templates, 8 column types, a bunch of iOS and Android apps. However, free plan is very limited in terms of collaboration features, security & privacy, support, productivity, etc.
• Basic Plan: The Basic plan provides essential CRM functionalities at an affordable price point, making it suitable for smaller brokerages or individual brokers. It includes basic features such as contact management, task tracking, and basic reporting tools.
• Standard Plan: The Standard plan includes advanced CRM functionalities such as workflow automation, custom dashboards, and integrations with third-party tools and services.
• Pro Plan: The Pro plan provides advanced features, premium support, and enhanced customization options. This plan is suitable for larger brokerages with complex workflows and extensive data management needs.
• Enterprise Plan: This plan offers exclusive features for organizations. However, to know the price, you need to contact sales managers.

Criteria #6. Support

AscendixRE CRM

AscendixRE offers a dedicated concierge service, comprehensive onboarding, email support, extensive training resources, and responsive assistance to address user inquiries promptly.

AscendixRE Support and Service

Monday.com CRM

Monday.com CRM offers comprehensive support to commercial real estate (CRE) brokers, such as onboading assistance, email support, help center and community forums. All Monday Sales CRM plans come with 24/7 email support and access to the knowledge base. However, in order to receive personalized support, customers need to purchase the Enterprise plan.

Drawbacks of Both Solutions

While AscendixRE CRM offers many benefits for CRE brokers, there are some drawbacks to consider as well:

• AscendixRE CRM is a feature-rich platform with advanced functionalities, which may result in a steeper learning curve for new users. Brokers may require additional time and resources for training and onboarding to fully leverage the platform’s capabilities.
• AscendixRE CRM pricing plans may be relatively higher compared to some other CRM solutions. The higher cost may be a barrier for some brokers, particularly those with limited budgets.

Upon checking review platforms like G2, Capterra, Reddit, SoftwareAdvice, we discovered that users frequently complain about the following drawbacks of Monday CRM:

• Many users state that Monday is mainly a project management tool with some CRM features. Even though it is promoted as a CRM, it has very limited capabilities outside what they could do in Excel;
• Complex and long-lasting setup;
• Broken connections between spreadsheets may occur, because Monday CRM is basically a collection of spreadsheets that link together;
• Paid plans require a minimum team size of three;
• Time tracking requires a Pro account;
• Monday.com CRM struggles with logic related to associations or database architecture;
• Every missing feature needs an app making Monday.com CRM costly and complex with a bigger setup. Depending on the number of add-ons you have, it gets expensive fast;
• Long processing of users’ inquiries. Some users mentioned that each ticket takes weeks to even be reviewed properly.

AscendixRE or Monday CRM?

The correct choice for your business comes back to what you are trying to achieve. If it’s just to keep track of customers lists, Monday might be able to do the job, but if you’re looking to scale your CRE business, eventually you’ll want sales, marketing, customer support to all be in sync, you need to choose more comprehensive solution like AscendixRE CRM.

For brokers seeking a comprehensive, industry-specific solution with built-in property management, commission tracking, and real estate analytics, AscendixRE CRM is a strong contender.

If you’re looking for assistance in CRM consulting, feel free to contact our managers. We’ll provide you with an unbiased consultation to help you make informed decisions.

If you are eager to see AscendixRE CRM in action, feel free to book a demo. Our team will be glad to assist you!