Seat minimums and seat buckets: what a team of 2, 4 or 11 actually pays for empty seats
Seat minimum pricing at monday.com, Smartsheet, Wrike, HubSpot, Asana and Atrix, with the cost of empty seats for teams of 2, 4 and 11 as of October 2026.
On this page
A seat minimum is the smallest number of seats a plan will sell you, and a seat bucket is the fixed block you must buy above it. Both make small teams pay for people they do not have. As of October 2026, monday.com starts at 3 seats and then sells blocks of 5, Smartsheet Business needs 3 members, Wrike Business needs 5, and HubSpot's Professional hubs include 3 seats in a fixed monthly floor.
The advertised price per seat is only true when your headcount lands exactly on a step. Everywhere else, the real price per person is higher. This post lists the minimums and buckets we verified on each vendor's own pricing or help page, then works out what a team of 2, 4 and 11 pays for empty seats. Our own product, Atrix, sells seats in packs of 5 and 15, so it is in the table too, and it does not come out clean.
Three ways vendors round your team up
Seat minimum. A plan will not sell fewer than a set number of seats. Two people buying a 3-seat minimum pay for one ghost.
Seat buckets. Above the minimum, seats come in fixed blocks. A team of 6 on a 5-seat step buys 10.
Included-seat floors. The plan has a fixed monthly price that includes some seats, with extra seats on top. You pay the floor even if fewer people use it.
A fourth pattern is the plan cap: a cheap plan has a maximum, and one more person forces you onto a plan with a higher price per seat for everyone. It is not a minimum, but it hits the same teams.
The rules, vendor by vendor (October 2026)
We checked every figure below on the vendor's own page on 27 October 2026. Prices are per seat per month on yearly billing unless stated.
| Vendor and plan | Price | Minimum or step | Source wording |
|---|---|---|---|
| monday.com Work Management, Basic / Standard / Pro | $9 / $12 / $19 | 3 seats, then multiples of 5 | Help centre: "start at a minimum of 3 seats, and then ascend in multiples of 5" |
| Smartsheet Pro | $9 ($12 monthly) | 1 to 10 members, no more | Pricing page: "1-10 Members" |
| Smartsheet Business | $19 ($24 monthly) | At least 3 members | Pricing page: "3+ Members" |
| Smartsheet Enterprise | Custom | At least 10 members | Pricing page: "10+ Members" |
| Wrike Team | $10 | 2 to 15 users | Pricing page |
| Wrike Business | $25 | 5 to 200 users, yearly only | Pricing page |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional | From $800 a month | Includes 3 core seats; extra seats from $45; $3,000 required onboarding | Pricing page |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise | From $3,600 a month | Includes 5 core seats; extra seats from $75; $7,000 required onboarding | Pricing page |
| Asana Starter | $10.99 ($13.49 monthly) | 1 seat at a time to 5 users, then blocks of 5 to 30, then 10 to 100 | Pricing page FAQ |
| ClickUp Core | $9 | No minimum stated; the whole workspace upgrades | Pricing page |
| Atrix Builder | $39 a month flat | Pack of 5 seats | Our pricing page |
| Atrix Studio | $149 a month flat | Pack of 15 seats | Our pricing page |
Notes on what the pages do and do not say:
- monday.com's pricing page FAQ says "plans start from 3 users" and that teams above 40 users should request a quote. The bucket rule is on its help centre. The Free plan covers up to 2 seats.
- HubSpot's Marketing Hub page shows both $800 and $890 for Professional without labelling which billing term each applies to; we use the lower "starts at" figure. Sales Hub Professional is sold per seat ($90 and $100 shown) with a required $1,500 onboarding fee, and no seat minimum is stated on that page.
- Asana's Personal plan is free for up to 2 users.
- Prices vary by country and change often. Check the page on the day you buy.
What a team of 2, 4 or 11 pays for empty seats
We picked these sizes on purpose. Two is a founding pair. Four sits just under a 5-seat step. Eleven sits just past a 10-seat step, which is where most buckets and caps bite.
Each cell shows the monthly bill, the seats paid for, and the empty seats in brackets, with their cost at the plan's own seat price.
| Plan | 2 people | 4 people | 11 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| monday.com Standard ($12) | $36 for 3 (1 empty, $12) | $60 for 5 (1 empty, $12) | $180 for 15 (4 empty, $48) |
| Smartsheet Pro ($9) | $18 for 2 | $36 for 4 | Not allowed: Pro stops at 10 |
| Smartsheet Business ($19) | $57 for 3 (1 empty, $19) | $76 for 4 | $209 for 11 |
| Wrike Team ($10) | $20 for 2 | $40 for 4 | $110 for 11 |
| Wrike Business ($25) | $125 for 5 (3 empty, $75) | $125 for 5 (1 empty, $25) | $275 for 11 |
| HubSpot Marketing Pro (from $800) | $800 for 3 (1 empty) | $845 for 4 | $1,160 for 11 |
| Asana Starter ($10.99) | $21.98 for 2 | $43.96 for 4 | $164.85 for 15 (4 empty, $43.96) |
| ClickUp Core ($9) | $18 for 2 | $36 for 4 | $99 for 11 |
| Atrix Builder / Studio | $39 for 5 (3 empty, $23.40) | $39 for 5 (1 empty, $7.80) | $149 for 15, Studio (4 empty, $39.73) |
What the table says:
- At 2 people, the worst rounding is Wrike Business, where 3 of 5 seats are empty and the real price is $62.50 a person. Atrix wastes 3 seats too, though the pack is cheap enough that the bill is still $39. The honest answer for two people is a free plan: monday.com, Asana, ClickUp and others all have one, and Atrix does not.
- At 4 people, most rounding is one seat. It matters little.
- At 11 people, buckets hurt most. monday.com charges for 15 seats, so Standard's real price is $16.36 a person, not $12. Asana Starter also rounds to 15. Smartsheet's Pro cap forces the move to Business: $209 a month against $99 if Pro allowed 11, so the eleventh person costs $110. Atrix moves from Builder to Studio and four seats sit empty.
Seat minimums are only one input. HubSpot's waste at 2 people is a single seat, but the $800 floor and $3,000 onboarding are the real barrier for a small team. Price the whole bill, not the rounding.
Atrix is not exempt
We sell packs, and packs are buckets with a different name. Builder is $39 a month for 5 seats and Studio is $149 for 15, with yearly billing 20% off ($374 and $1,430). From 6 to 12 people, Studio is more expensive than most per-seat tools; at 11 people, ClickUp Core is $99 and Wrike Team is $110 against Studio's $149. There is no free plan, the 7-day trial needs a card, and there is no plan above 15 seats.
Two things change the sum. Each pack includes work, docs, chat, calendar, CRM, hiring and AI runs (100 a month on Builder, 500 on Studio), so a team that would otherwise buy a separate CRM or chat tool should add those seats to the comparison. And founding teams that subscribe before 31 December 2026 keep unlimited seats for as long as they stay subscribed, which removes the step entirely for them. The flat versus per-seat pricing glossary entry sets out when packs win and when they lose, and our break-even post on flat-price project management has the full maths.
How to avoid paying for empty seats
- Count real users, then count next quarter's. Rounding hurts most when you are one person past a step. If you will cross it in three months anyway, the empty seats are a short-term cost.
- Check the step table before the trial ends. Find the minimum, the block size and any plan cap. Our monday.com write-up, monday.com alternatives with no seat minimum, shows how the buckets play out.
- Ask what a guest costs. Free viewers and guests can turn into paid seats under some vendors' rules. Read the guest policy before inviting clients.
- Use monthly billing while headcount moves. Yearly billing is cheaper per seat, but some vendors only let you remove seats at renewal.
- Price the whole stack. Add the tools you would buy alongside: CRM, chat, docs, scheduling. The stack cost calculator does this in a minute.
FAQ
What is a seat minimum?
The smallest number of seats a plan will sell. If a plan has a 3-seat minimum, a team of two pays for three. As of October 2026, monday.com plans start at 3 seats, Smartsheet Business at 3 members and Wrike Business at 5 users.
Does monday.com have a 3-seat minimum?
Yes. monday.com's pricing page says plans start from 3 users, and its help centre says seats then rise in multiples of 5, so a team of 4 buys 5 seats and a team of 6 buys 10. The Free plan covers up to 2 seats.
Does Smartsheet have a 10-seat minimum?
Only on Enterprise, which needs 10 or more members. Business needs at least 3, and Pro allows 1 to 10. A team of 11 cannot use Pro, so it has to move to Business or above.
Which project management tools have no seat minimum?
Among the tools we checked, ClickUp and Asana's paid plans have no minimum, though Asana sells seats in blocks of 5 above 5 users. Wrike Team starts at 2 users. Free plans from monday.com, Asana and ClickUp cover very small teams.
Do Atrix packs count as seat buckets?
Yes. Builder is 5 seats and Studio is 15, so a team of 6 to 14 pays for empty seats on Studio. Founding teams that subscribe before 31 December 2026 keep unlimited seats.
Next step
Compare the exact numbers for your team on the Atrix pricing page, or see how Atrix and monday.com differ on features as well as price on the monday.com comparison.
Sources
Checked on 27 October 2026: monday.com pricing, monday.com help centre: Plans and pricing, Smartsheet pricing, Wrike pricing, HubSpot Marketing Hub pricing, HubSpot Sales Hub pricing, Asana pricing, ClickUp pricing.