MonoDesk alternative: Stack vs MonoDesk for small Australian agencies

If you're looking at MonoDesk and Stack, you're probably deciding what the centre of your working day should be. MonoDesk is built around creative projects: boards, a weekly planner, proposals, invoices and a client portal. Stack is built around your inbox and your clients: email, calendar, pipeline, client records and portals in one place.

We make Stack, so read this with that in mind. Every claim about MonoDesk comes from MonoDesk's own pricing, feature and help pages, checked on 28 October 2026. We say plainly where MonoDesk is the better choice, and there are several.

The short answer

Choose MonoDesk if you're a freelancer or a small creative team and you want to win, run and bill projects in one tool. It has proposals with e-signature, invoices, project boards and a portal where clients approve work. It has a free plan that doesn't expire, and every plan is currently free.

Choose Stack if your agency runs on email and you want the inbox, calendar, pipeline, client records and client portals together. Stack is priced in Australian dollars including GST, suits teams of one to nine, and includes an AI assistant on every plan. It doesn't do proposals or invoices, so you'd keep other tools for those.

What you're really choosing between

MonoDesk: a calm workspace for creative projects

MonoDesk describes itself as a workspace for creative agencies, studios and freelance creative professionals, and says it works as well for one person as for a studio of ten. It groups its features as winning work (leads, client research, meetings and proposals), delivering it (projects, a weekly planner, time tracking and teams) and getting paid (invoices). Clients, client portals and client updates sit alongside.

Its AI assistant, the Co-Worker, can plan your day, draft invoices, proposals and client updates, and log time you forgot to track. MonoDesk is backed by Envato, the company behind Envato Elements and ThemeForest. Its terms, last revised 4 June 2026, name Shutterstock, Inc. as the company you agree them with, under New York law.

Stack: a workspace built around your inbox and clients

Stack is made for small Australian agencies and studios of one to nine people, with Enterprise for teams of ten or more. Gmail or Outlook, your calendars and your tasks come into one workspace, and so do texts and team chat.

Around that sit a sales pipeline, client records with onboarding checklists, time logged on tasks, a booking page and a client portal on every plan. Penny, the built-in assistant, writes a morning brief and first drafts from your inbox, calendar and tasks.

Side by side

Here are the features a small agency usually asks about. Where MonoDesk puts a feature on a paid plan, the table says which one.

"Not compared" means MonoDesk's pages don't say either way. "Not listed on its site" means its feature and help pages don't mention it.

Pricing, in each product's own currency

The two price lists are in different currencies, and we haven't converted them. Exchange rates move and MonoDesk's prices exclude local tax, so a converted figure would look more exact than it is.

Stack

Stack's prices are in Australian dollars and include GST. Billing is monthly and you can cancel any time. Full details are on the pricing page.

• Pro: A$49 a month for one person. Includes the workspace, sales pipeline, clients, onboarding and portal, and Penny with 3,000 messages a month.
• Team: A$196 a month with five users included, then A$39 a month for each extra user, up to nine. Adds owner, admin and member roles, shared mailboxes with private mail kept private, and Penny with 15,000 messages a month.
• Enterprise: for ten or more users, priced with you.

Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. If you don't continue, your workspace becomes read-only and nothing is deleted.

MonoDesk

MonoDesk shows its prices in US dollars and says they exclude local tax. Its pricing page calls them "what we expect plans to cost when pricing takes effect", and says prices and plan limits may change in late 2026 or early 2027.

Right now MonoDesk is free. It says an account created today gets every feature on every plan, with no credit card, until the end of 2026. It may start charging new accounts before then; anyone who signed up earlier stays free until 31 December 2026.

The pricing page shows monthly prices only, and clients never count as seats.

Example: a 4-person Brisbane design studio

This is a made-up example, not a customer. Four people need to log in, and the studio wants clients to see progress without endless email.

On price alone, MonoDesk costs much less for this studio, and it's currently free. It also includes proposals and invoicing, which Stack doesn't do at all. What Stack's higher price buys is the inbox, calendar and messaging side, which MonoDesk leaves to your email app.

Email and calendar: the biggest difference

MonoDesk doesn't have an inbox for your email. When the Co-Worker drafts an email, you open it in your email app or Gmail to send it. Client updates can go into the client's portal, or you copy them out or open them in Gmail.

MonoDesk's Planner can show events from Google Calendar, Outlook or Microsoft 365, Apple iCloud, or any .ics calendar link. Its help centre is clear that this is read-only: it never creates, edits or deletes your events.

In Stack, you connect Gmail or Outlook to read, reply, send, archive and label mail, and on Team the inbox can be shared, with private mail kept private. Google and Outlook calendars sync both ways, so an event you create or move in Stack writes back.

Stack also brings two-way SMS into the same inbox through your own Twilio account, with Australian numbers you add inside Stack, and Twilio bills you directly for the texts. Slack messages can land there too, and so can Telegram and Discord through a firm bot an admin connects.

Your booking page offers only the times you're free, but it needs a Google calendar for now. See the integrations page for what connects today.

Client portals: both have one, built differently

MonoDesk gives each client one branded link that covers every project you choose to share. Anyone with the link can view, with no account or password. To take part, such as approving a deliverable, answering a request or joining the message thread, a person needs an email invitation from you.

MonoDesk's portal is strong on sign-off. Clients approve a deliverable or request changes with a comment, answer requests with files, links or text, and watch milestones move as tasks are done. You can reset the link, set an expiry date, turn the portal off, and see how often it's been opened.

Stack includes a client portal on every plan. Each client gets a private page with progress, documents, messages and requests, and signs in from a link emailed to them. You choose which tasks and files they see, and their portal messages arrive in your inbox beside email and texts.

Stack doesn't have MonoDesk's approve-or-request-changes button on a deliverable. You'd ask for sign-off through a request or a message. If approvals are where your projects stall, our guide on how to stop chasing clients for approvals and files works with either tool, and whether a small agency needs a client portal helps you decide how much portal you need.

Winning work: leads, proposals and the pipeline

MonoDesk's Leads board has six stages, from New to Won and Lost, with an estimated value on each lead. Marking a lead as won turns it into a client and can start a blank project. Leads, proposals and invoices come with the Core and Pro plans, not the Free plan.

Before a call, Research builds a report on a business from its links, and Meetings drafts an agenda, then writes a recap from your notes (it doesn't record audio). Proposals are branded, can be signed online, and convert into a project, with an optional draft deposit invoice.

Stack's sales pipeline takes deals from an email, a contact or a CSV file. When a deal is won, Stack sets up a client record linked to the deal's contact and company, and the onboarding template you pick adds a project and its first tasks. Stack doesn't write or send proposals, so you'd keep using your own template or document tool for those.

Getting paid

MonoDesk's invoices come with the Core and Pro plans. You build them from 20 templates, with deposits, part payments and inclusive or exclusive tax, and MonoDesk lists twelve currencies as built in. Clients pay by bank transfer or a PayPal button on the invoice, and you record payments as they arrive.

You can email an invoice from MonoDesk, share a link or save a PDF, and turn tracked hours into an invoice. MonoDesk doesn't list a direct accounting connection. Its help centre suggests Zapier for sending invoice details to an accounting tool.

AI: Penny and the Co-Worker

MonoDesk's Co-Worker is on every plan. It works through more than 80 tools on your own clients, projects, tasks and files. It hands you drafts to finish, and MonoDesk says nothing goes to a client without you and nothing is logged until you approve it.

On Pro, MonoDesk also has an MCP server, so AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor can read and update your clients, projects, tasks and time. Its pricing page doesn't state a monthly AI allowance.

Stack's assistant, Penny, is on every plan with 3,000 messages a month on Pro and 15,000 on Team. She writes a morning brief, drafts replies and proposes tasks from your inbox, calendar and tasks. She never sends an email, text or portal post without a person confirming it.

Where MonoDesk is the better fit

For plenty of creative businesses MonoDesk is the right call. It's the better fit when:

• You want proposals and invoices in the same tool. Proposals with e-signature turn into projects, and invoices are built from your tracked time and accepted proposals. Stack does neither.
• Cost matters most right now. The Free plan doesn't expire, every plan is currently free, and the expected Pro price covers two people for US$29 a month.
• Your clients sign off creative work. Deliverables have a proper approve or request-changes step.
• You plan your week around project boards. The weekly Planner, task boards, milestones and project templates are at the centre of MonoDesk.
• You prepare for a lot of pitches. Client research reports, meeting agendas and recaps help you walk into a call ready.
• You rely on Zapier. MonoDesk connects to Zapier, and on Pro to AI tools through MCP. Stack's Zapier connection isn't available yet.

If those matter more to you than having your email, calendar and messages beside your clients, MonoDesk will serve you better.

What Stack doesn't do

Stack is also young. It's Australian-owned, built by ThinkSwift in Melbourne, and changing quickly.

Which one fits you: a quick checklist

Tick the lines that describe your business. If most of your ticks are in the first list, start with Stack. If they're in the second, start with MonoDesk.

Lean towards Stack if

• Most client conversations happen in Gmail or Outlook, and you lose track of them between tools.
• You want calendars that sync both ways, and a booking page clients can use.
• Clients text you, or your team talks in Slack, Telegram or Discord, and you want them in the same inbox.
• You're a team of up to nine and want one price in Australian dollars, GST included.

Lean towards MonoDesk if

• You want to send proposals and invoices from the same place you run projects.
• You're solo or a small team and a free or low-cost plan matters this year.
• Your clients approve designs, drafts or edits, and you want that step tracked.
• You're happy to keep email in your email app and use the portal for client conversations.

Moving across from MonoDesk

You don't have to switch in one go. You can run Stack beside MonoDesk for the 14-day trial, then decide. Stack doesn't have a direct MonoDesk connection, so contacts move by file.

What comes across

• Contacts: put your client contacts in a CSV file, then import it into Stack. The import shows each column so you can match it to a Stack field. Each import takes up to 1,000 contacts in a file of up to 5MB.
• Duplicates: when an email address already exists in Stack, you choose to skip that row or update the existing contact.

What doesn't come across

• Projects and tasks: Stack's import takes contacts, so set up open projects and tasks by hand. For most small teams that's a short list.
• Proposals and invoices: these have no place to go in Stack. Keep MonoDesk or your accounting tool for them.
• Portal history: messages, approvals and files in MonoDesk's portal stay there, so save what you need first.

Before you start, decide what each client record should hold. Our guide on what to keep on a client record helps you choose which columns to bring and which to leave behind.

1. 01Start a Stack trial and connect your email and calendarConnect Gmail or Outlook first, so recent mail, your calendar and tasks are in place before any contacts arrive.
2. 02Get your client contacts into a CSV filePut each contact's name, email, phone and company in its own column. Stack's import reads CSV files only.
3. 03Import the CSV and check the column matchesMatch your columns to Stack's fields, choose skip or update for duplicates, and check the preview before you import.
4. 04Set up open work and turn on portalsAdd active deals to the pipeline and open tasks to each client, then switch on the portal for clients who need one.
5. 05Run both side by side, then decideUse Stack for day-to-day client work during the trial, and keep MonoDesk until you're sure.

If you'd like a hand planning the move, email the Stack team. If you're also looking at tools with proposals built in, our HoneyBook comparison covers a similar choice.

So which one?

If you want proposals, invoices and project boards for creative work, and a free plan this year, choose MonoDesk. If your agency runs on email and you want inbox, calendar, pipeline, client records and portals together, priced in Australian dollars, start a 14-day free trial of Stack and see whether it fits.