Asana claims to be the top project management software on the market, and its clients make up some of the biggest names in the business, such as Spotify, Nasa, General Electric, and the New York Times. However, while over 100,000 organizations across the globe use Asana to manage their projects, it is not the only PM software that software development teams can choose from. This is why we came up with a list of the top Asana alternatives, so you have some options in your search for a project management tool to boost your team’s collaboration and productivity. But first, we will recap Asana’s features and pros and cons.
Asana features
As mentioned, some of the top organizations in the world use asana to help their teams manage software projects and stay on the same page. And, when you look at Asana’s feature set, it’s easy to see why it’s so popular:
- The ability to manage projects, tasks, subtasks, Kanban boards for visualizing and tracking work
- List, timeline, and calendar views
- Collaboration through followers, task comments, statuses, private messages, and project and team conversations
- Task dependencies
- Custom templates to quickly get started
- Shared calendar to see what teammates are working on
- Customizable and shareable dashboards to gauge progress across projects and teams
- Customizable and downloadable charts
- Custom fields that fit your workflows
- Workflow builder for creating automated processes
- Forms for submitting and managing work in one spot
- Automation to spend less time on recurring, mundane tasks
- Workload to see what is on team members’ plates and to ensure they do not get overloaded
- Reports that offer real-time insights into progress
- Budget tracking
- File attachments through your computer, Google Drive, Box, or Dropbox
- App integrations with Slack, Zoom, Google Drive, etc.
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android
Asana Pricing
Asana gives project managers four pricing plans to choose from. The basic plan is free forever and helps teams or individuals get their feet wet with project management at no cost. With the basic plan, you get a host of features to help you manage personal to-dos and tasks for your small team, such as unlimited tasks, projects, messages, activity logs, and file storage. You also get multiple views (list, board, calendar, etc.) over 100 integrations, and collaboration for up to 15 team members.
Asana’s Premium plan costs $10.99 per user, per month when billed annually. It helps teams create project plans with additional features like unlimited dashboards, custom fields, timelines, a workflow builder, forms, rules, milestones, task templates, start dates and times, unlimited free guests, and private teams and projects.
For $24.99 per user, per month, you can access the Business plan’s features that help teams and companies manage work efficiently. It gives you everything from the Premium plan, plus approvals, proofing, portfolios, workload, a custom rules builder, and advanced integrations with Power BI, Salesforce, Tableau, and more.
If you need additional support, security, and control, Asana has an Enterprise plan that offers everything from the Business plan, plus custom branding, data export and deletion, SAML, attachment controls, and more. You will need to contact Asana directly to get custom Enterprise pricing.
Asana Strengths and Weaknesses
Asana has plenty of strengths in its favor, but some of its weaknesses may make you seek an alternative project management solution. Here is how Asana stacks up:
Asana Project Management Strengths for Developers:
- A superb free forever plan that is full of features for up to 15 team members
- Flexible enough to be used by other departments in your organization beyond software development, such as human resources, finance, etc.
- Excellent for Agile thanks to Kanban other scrum support, bug tracking, sprint planning, roadmaps, feedback, work requests, product launches, and more
- Multiple views to visualize progress (Kanban boards, workloads, calendars, portfolios, timelines)
- Customizable dashboards
- Extensive collaboration tools
- Plenty of integrations with third-party tools
- Time saving automation
Asana Project Management Weaknesses for Developers:
- Can be overwhelming for beginners to learn
- The mobile app may underwhelm on-the-go users
- Distracting notifications (you can turn them off, thankfully)
- Assigning tasks to multiple users is a clunky process
- May have too many features for small teams seeking a simple PM solution
- No out-of-the-box time tracking
You can learn more about Asana by reading our Asana project management tool review.
Project Management Software Alternatives To Asana
Although Asana is noted as one of the best project management offerings on the market, you may find options that fit your development team’s needs better. Here are some of the top Asana alternatives worth considering during your search for PM software.
Jira
One of the best Asana alternatives for Agile software development teams is Jira. It is used by many software developers to boost productivity and is highlighted by Kanban boards, Scrum boards, roadmaps, and superb reporting. Jira is also the choice of many development teams for its DevOps, bug tracking features, and integrations.
You can learn more about Jira in our Jira Project Management Software Review.
ActiveCollab
Smaller developer teams may find ActiveCollab a better fit than Asana for their project management needs. Its interface is easy to navigate and has multiple task views (list, column, timeline) to accommodate followers of the Agile, Waterfall, Kanban, and Scrum methods. You can collaborate in ActiveCollab via comments, notes, discussions, and in-app chat, time tracking, resource management, workflow management, and integrations with other apps (including Asana).
You can learn more about ActiveCollab and its features for developers by reading our Active Collab Project Management Software Review.
air table
true to its name, air table uses customizable tables to plan and organize tasks. Part spreadsheet and part database, Airtable offers multiple views (form, Kanban, grid, calendar), an interface designer, automations to streamline your workflows, reporting, templates (product launch, Gantt, product roadmap, etc.), and integrations with Asana and other popular apps.
You can learn more about Airtable by checking out our Airtable Project Management Tool Review.
hive
hive is highly-rated project management software that functions similarly to Asana since it uses tasks as building blocks. It makes the list as a project management alternative because it offers some features that Asana does not, such as native email, time tracking, note-taking, comprehensive proofing, and multi-user actions. Most importantly, Hive is user-friendly, while Asana has been known to have a bit of a learning curve.
Read our Hive Project Management Review to learn more.
smartsheet
If you prefer the old-fashioned way of managing tasks and projects with spreadsheets, smartsheet may be your preferred Asana alternative. It offers time tracking, budgeting, resource management, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, automated workflows, templates, and other features that have helped other teams see as much as a 70 percent increase in productivity and a 60x faster setup time.
Check out our Smartsheet PM Software Review for more about its features.
ClickUp
ClickUp makes the list of Asana alternatives because it makes it easy to assign multiple team members to a task. ClickUp is also ideal for Agile development teams thanks to its vast library of automations (you can make custom ones as well) and its 100-plus integrations. Speaking of integrations, you can use Zapier to integrate ClickUp with Asana.
Learn more about ClickUp in our ClickUp Project Management Review.
ProofHub
You can assign tasks to multiple users in ProofHub, and it is also known for giving managers a high level of control over projects and teams. You can track time in ProofHub with timesheets, take notes, create to-do lists, use Gantt charts, and collaborate via discussions or chat.
ProProfs Project
While very easy to use, ProProfs Project can help you manage complex projects. The Asana alternative features plenty of professionally designed templates to get you started quickly, and it also lets you assign multiple users to tasks. Other ProProfs features worth mentioning include a risk mitigation feature to help you pinpoint potential bottlenecks, Gantt charts, a shared calendar, time tracking, task comments and discussions, file sharing, drag-and-drop project prioritization, and excellent reporting.
Alternative project management tools for developers
Still not finding the right option to fit your software development team’s project management and collaboration needs? Check out some of our other PM software round-ups for more options:
