Planning your app

Define a project plan for building your monday app, from product research to marketplace review

Thinking of integrating monday.com with your platform, but not sure what the process entails? Below, we outline exactly what to expect when building a monday app.

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App development phases

When building an app, you will go through four distinct phases:

PhaseNameDescription
Phase 1App definitionIdentify the gaps your integration app will address and how it will bring value to both your own software's users as well as monday.com users
Phase 2Technical scopingResearch and familiarize yourself with the apps framework components you will need to leverage in your app
Phase 3BuildingBuild and deploy your app
Phase 4App reviewSubmit your app for review to be listed in our marketplace

Phase 1: App definition

In this phase, you will determine what type of monday app to build. What industries and use cases overlap between monday.com and your product? How would users expand their existing workflows with a connection to your product?

Our marketplace already features a wide variety of apps, some of which share similar features or functionality. To encourage innovation and reduce redundancy, we identify areas each quarter that were heavily covered in the previous one. This gives you a better idea of what types of apps to avoid building for the time being.

As of 2025 Q2, we recommend avoiding these areas:

  • Zendesk integrations
  • Embedded Google apps (particularly Calendar and Docs)
  • WhatsApp integrations

Keep in mind that the most successful apps are often part of a broader solution, rather than standalone tools. If you're unsure what to build, explore our idea board for inspiration!

Sign up for a monday.com account

To get hands-on experience with our platform, we recommend signing up for a monday.com account. While you can build apps on any account type, we offer a dedicated developer account that includes all the benefits of the free plan, plus a few extra perks tailored for app builders. Learn more here!

Phase outcome

By the end of this phase, you should have a solid idea of the value your app will bring to users and the functionality it will need to have.

Related resources

Phase 2: Technical scoping

The technical scoping phase is where you will define the technical components needed for your app. This will include determining the exact API queries and monday app framework tools you will be utilizing. When doing your technical scoping, we recommend familiarizing yourself with our relevant technical documentation.

Scoping checklist

The following is a checklist for building custom integration recipes:

  1. Authorization and authentication
    What authorization method will your app be utilizing?

  2. Trigger and action recipe blocks
    Are your custom blocks designed for reusability for multiple recipes?

  3. Input and output fields for each recipe block
    Have you selected the appropriate settings for your input fields? Are you returning the correct output fields in your recipe blocks?

  4. Applicable custom field types
    Do you need to set up custom field types, such as remote options or dynamic mapping?

  5. Database evaluation
    Does your app need to implement a database? Do you need to store some user data? Is your database implemented securely and compliant with our security protocols?

Phase outcome

This is the most critical step in the app development process, as a well-scoped app will save development time later. If you do not scope and plan your app correctly during this phase, you may need to adjust your app functionality.

Related resources

Phase 3: Building

In the building phase, your team will build your app by applying all of the knowledge gained from the previous phase. This phase should go smoothly and efficiently if you have thoroughly scoped out your app.

Taking the integration recipe example from above, the building phase is where you will be creating your custom trigger, action, and field type blocks.

Iterative development

It’s important to note that the technical scoping and the building phases may be iterative. For instance, it might be the case that you realize you need to utilize a database for your app in the middle of your build phase. This will require you to revisit technical scoping.

Phase outcome

After completing this phase, you will have your new monday app that’s ready for submission to our apps review team. As such, we recommend preparing the graphical assets and marketing copy that will accompany your application in this phase as well.

Related resources

Phase 4: App review

The last phase in the monday app development cycle is the review phase.

At this point, your app should be built and should be ready for submission to our apps marketplace. In the review phase, you can expect some feedback from our team on your app.

Phase outcome

Once finished, your app will be available in our marketplace for our users!

Related resources

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