Monk or Ranger for soloing melee?

[Aaramis]

^^ The Monk definately has more dps, and on paper, sure they're better.

The Ranger's benefits are in that little word you mentioned - "spells".
Outdoors they can harmony and single pull; they can snare (the death of many a soloer is a running mob); they can root; they can bow kite if need be; they can DoT, including lowering an enemy's AC; they can self-buff their AC and HP; they can self-DS (thorns); they can self-SoW; they can self-heal, and eventually self-regen; they can dispel enemy DSs (cancel magic); they can track; the list goes on.

All of those add up to make the gap VERY narrow indeed, if not tilted in the Ranger's favour.

The Monk is a dps machine. The Ranger is a swiss army knife, similar to the Bard (but with less utility, but more dps).