Asana Review: Features, Pros and Cons, Pricing, and Alternatives

This Asana review looks at the web-based project and task management software founded in 2008, designed to help teams work together and manage their tasks and projects more efficiently. 

Asana allows teams to track the progress of their projects, assign tasks to team members, and collaborate on projects in real time. 

It has gained widespread popularity among businesses of all sizes due to its easy-to-use interface and ability to streamline workflows. In this review of Asan, we will explore all you need to know.

Features of Asana

Asana offers many features that help teams manage their tasks and projects more efficiently. As we review Asana, we look at some of its key features.

1. Asana Task management

Asana offers a robust task management system that allows teams to create, assign, and track the progress of their tasks. This system provides teams with a clear view of what needs to be done, who is responsible for each task, and when each task is due.

One of the key features of Asana’s task management system is its ability to create subtasks. Subtasks allow teams to break down larger tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces. This makes it easier for team members to focus on specific aspects of a task and collaborate more efficiently.

Additionally, subtasks can have their due dates and assignees, making it easy to keep track of progress and ensure that everything is on schedule.

Asana’s task management system also allows for dependencies. Dependencies are tasks that cannot be completed until another task is finished.

For example, if a team is working on a software development project, they might have a task to design the user interface dependent on another task to create the database.

Asana’s dependency feature ensures that teams are not working on tasks that are not ready to be worked on yet, which helps to prevent delays and ensure that everything is on track.

Furthermore, a key feature of Asana’s task management system is the ability to add comments and attachments to tasks. Making it easy for team members to collaborate on tasks and share files, feedback, and ideas.

Asana’s task management system also includes a range of other features, such as the ability to create recurring tasks, set task priorities, and view tasks by assignee, due date, or project. These features make it easy for teams to customize their workflows and ensure everyone works efficiently.

2. Asana Project management

The platform allows users to create and manage projects of different sizes and complexities, from small ad-hoc projects to large, complex ones that span multiple teams and departments.

Asana Project management allows users to easily create and organize projects using various tools, including lists, boards, and timelines. This flexibility allows teams to tailor the platform to their needs, ensuring everyone has a clear view of the project’s progress and goals.

It facilitates collaboration among team members by allowing users to assign tasks to specific team members, set due dates and priorities, and track progress in real-time. This feature makes it easy for everyone on the team to stay on the same page, ensuring the project moves forward according to plan.

The Asana project management feature also includes creating templates for common projects or workflows, such as content creation or software development.

These templates can save time and ensure consistency across multiple projects, making it easy to standardize workflows and ensure everyone works efficiently.

3. Asana Collaboration

Asana’s collaboration features are some of the platform’s most powerful and essential tools. With Asana, team members can easily collaborate on tasks, projects, and workflows, ensuring everyone works together efficiently and effectively.

One of the key collaboration features of Asana is its ability to assign tasks to specific team members. This feature makes it easy for team members to know precisely what to do, when, and who is responsible for completing it.

Additionally, tasks can be prioritized and tagged with relevant information, such as the project they belong to or the stage they are in.

Asana’s collaboration features also include leaving comments and attaching files to tasks. Making it easy for team members to ask questions, provide feedback, and share ideas and resources in real-time.

All comments and attachments are stored within the task itself, making it easy for team members to access the information they need without having to search through multiple emails or chat threads.

Asana also allows for direct messaging between team members, which is useful for quick and informal communication. Team members can use Asana’s messaging feature to ask questions, provide updates, and collaborate on tasks without switching between multiple communication tools.

Asana’s collaboration features also include the ability to set up team meetings and check-ins, which can help to improve communication and collaboration.

And lastly, the calendar view allows team members to see all upcoming meetings and events in one place, ensuring everyone knows important deadlines and milestones. This is a collaboration feature that boosts Asana project management.

4. Asana Customization

The platform allows users to customize their workflows, project views, and task assignments to meet their specific needs and preferences. This flexibility makes Asana a powerful tool for teams of all sizes and industries.

A major customization feature of Asana is the ability to create custom fields. These allow users to add additional information to tasks and projects beyond the standard fields provided by Asana.

For example, users can create custom fields to track the project’s priority, estimated completion time, or the team member responsible for a specific task. This feature ensures that teams can track the information most relevant to their project or workflow.

Asana also allows users to create custom project views. Users can choose from a range of project view options, including list, board, and timeline views, and can customize these views to display the information they need.

For example, users can customize list views to show only the assigned or overdue tasks. This feature makes it easy for teams to tailor their project views to their specific needs and preferences.

Additionally, we love the ability to create custom templates. Asana provides a range of pre-built templates for common workflows and projects, but users can also create custom templates. This ensures consistency across multiple projects, making it easy to standardize workflows and efficiently.

You will also be able to create custom rules. Rules allow users to automate specific actions or workflows based on certain triggers.

For example, you can create rules to automatically assign tasks to specific team members based on certain criteria or to send notifications when a task is completed. This feature helps teams to save time and streamline their workflows by automating repetitive tasks.

5. Asana Integration

Asana’s integration capabilities are a key feature that makes it a versatile and powerful tool for project management.

One of the most popular integrations for Asana is with communication tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. These integrations allow teams to receive Asana notifications directly within their communication tools, making it easy to stay up-to-date on project progress and task assignments.

Asana also integrates with a range of file-sharing and storage tools, such as Dropbox and Google Drive. These integrations make it easy for teams to share and collaborate on files within Asana, without having to switch between multiple tools.

Additionally, teams can attach files to specific tasks or projects within Asana, ensuring that all relevant files are stored in one place.

Another popular integration for Asana is with time-tracking tools such as Harvest and Toggl. These integrations allow teams to track the time spent on specific tasks or projects, providing valuable insights into project progress and resource allocation.

Asana also integrates with a range of automation tools, such as Zapier and IFTTT. These integrations allow teams to automate specific workflows and actions based on certain triggers, such as creating a new task in Asana when a form is submitted or sending a notification when a task is completed.

As far as Asana project management, its integration feature is an invaluable element.

6. Asana Reporting

Asana’s reporting feature provides teams with valuable insights into project progress and team performance. With reporting, teams can track key metrics, identify improvement areas, and make data-driven decisions to ensure that projects are completed within budget and on time.

Asana’s reporting features include several pre-built reports, such as the project overview, workload, and progress reports. These reports provide teams with a high-level overview of project progress, team performance, and resource allocation, making it easy to identify any issues or bottlenecks in the workflow.

Additionally, users can customize these reports to display the information most relevant to their project or team.

Another key reporting feature of Asana is the ability to create custom reports. These allow users to create and save reports tailored to their needs and preferences. For example, users can create custom reports to track specific metrics such as task completion rates or time spent on specific projects.

A review of the Asana reporting feature shows it also includes real-time dashboards. Dashboards provide a visual overview of project progress, allowing teams to identify any issues or areas for improvement quickly.

One of the most valuable aspects of Asana reporting is the ability to export data. Users can export data from Asana in various formats, including CSV, Excel, and PDF, making sharing data with stakeholders outside of Asana easy.

On the Asana project management, reporting remains one of the key reasons why we love it.

Asana Mobile app

Asana offers a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices, which allows users to stay connected and productive on-the-go. The mobile app provides a simplified version of Asana’s web-based interface, making it easy for users to manage their tasks and projects from their mobile devices.

The Asana mobile app offers key features, including task and project management, team communication, and push notifications. Users can create and manage tasks, assign tasks to team members, set due dates, and add comments and attachments from their mobile devices.

Additionally, users can create and manage projects, add and remove team members, and set project goals and timelines.

The mobile app also includes team communication features, such as posting updates and comments and communicating with team members via direct messaging. These features make it easy for teams to stay connected and collaborate even on the go.

A key benefit of the Asana mobile app is its push notifications feature. Users can set up notifications for tasks and projects to alert them when new updates or changes occur. This ensures that users stay up-to-date on project progress and can take action when necessary.

The Asana mobile app also offers offline access, allowing users to access their tasks and projects even when not connected to the internet. This is particularly useful for users who travel frequently or work in areas with limited connectivity.

Regarding the Asana project management service, the mobile app remains one of its biggest selling points.

Asana Review: Pros and cons

Pros:

• Task and project management feature that makes it easy to track progress, set goals, and assign tasks to team members.
• Collaboration features that enable team members to communicate, share files, and work together in real-time.
• Customization features allow users to create and customize workflows, templates, and reports to fit their specific needs.
• Integration with many other tools and services, including Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, and many others.
• Real-time updates and notifications that keep team members informed and on track.
• A mobile app that allows users to manage tasks and projects on the go.
• Reporting features that provide valuable insights into project progress and team performance.
• Support for multiple languages and platforms, including web, iOS, and Android.
• Excellent customer support and resources, including a comprehensive knowledge base, user forums, and a support ticket system.

Cons:

• A steep learning curve for some users, especially those new to project management software.
• Limited customization options for some users, particularly those who require more advanced or specialized features.
• Pricing may be prohibitively expensive for some users, particularly those with small teams or limited budgets.

Asana Review: Pricing and Plans

Asana offers four pricing plans: Basic, Premium, Business, and Enterprise.

The Basic plan is free and includes basic task management features. The Premium plan starts at $10.99 per user per month and includes more advanced features like custom fields and dashboards. The Business and Enterprise plans offer more advanced features and pricing is based on the size of the team.

Basic Plan

• Cost: Free
• Features:
  • Task management for individuals and small teams
  • List, board, and calendar views
  • Basic search and reporting features
  • Up to 15 team members
  • Limited integrations

Premium Plan

• Cost: $13.49 per user per month (billed annually)
• Features:
  • All Basic features, plus:
  • Timeline view
  • Advanced search and reporting features
  • Custom fields and templates
  • Forms for team members and external stakeholders
  • Unlimited integrations
  • Admin console for user management and control
  • Priority customer support

Business Plan

• Cost: $30.49 per user per month (billed annually)
• Features:
  • All Premium features, plus:
  • Portfolios for high-level project tracking
  • Workload view for team capacity planning
  • Advanced admin controls, including SSO and data export
  • Access to Asana’s API for custom integrations
  • Advanced security and compliance features
  • Dedicated customer success manager
  • Onboarding and training

Enterprise Plan

• Cost: Custom pricing based on specific needs
• Features:
  • All Business features, plus:
  • Advanced customization and branding options
  • Advanced reporting and analytics features
  • Advanced security and compliance features, including SOC 2 compliance
  • Enhanced support and SLAs
  • Dedicated account management and support

Best alternatives to Asana

Asana competes with a range of other project and task management tools. Here are the best alternatives to Asana:

Trello

Trello is a visual task management tool that uses a Kanban-style board to organize tasks. It is easy-to-use and offers a range of customization options.

To learn more about Trello, check out our comprehensive Trello review.

Monday.com

Monday.com is a flexible project management tool offering various customization options. It is designed to help teams manage projects, tasks, and workflows more efficiently.

Check out our comprehensive Monday.com review.

Jira

Jira is another project management tool that is designed for software development teams. It includes features like bug tracking, agile project management, and release management.

Check out our comprehensive Jira review.

Basecamp

Basecamp is a project management tool offering various features, including task management, team communication, and file sharing. It is designed to help teams collaborate more efficiently.

ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management service offering various features, including task management, time tracking, and project reporting. It is designed to help teams manage their projects and workflows more efficiently.

Who does Asana compete with?

Asana competes with a range of project and task management tools, including Trello, Monday.com, Jira, Basecamp, ClickUp, and others. These tools offer similar features and functionality and are designed to help teams manage their projects and workflows more efficiently.

Our Asana review verdict

Asana is a powerful project and task management tool that offers many features to help teams manage their workflows more efficiently.

Its robust task and project management features, customization options, and third-party integrations make it a great choice for teams of all sizes.

While it may be overwhelming for some users, it offers a range of resources to help users get started and make the most of the tool. Its pricing plans are also reasonable, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes.

We highly recommend Asana to teams looking for a powerful, flexible project and task management tool.

That is as far as we will discuss in this Asana review. What do you think we may have left out? Please reach out to us in the comments below.