Best Asana Alternatives of 2023 (Free + Paid)

ProjectManager

Asana is a well-known project management software solution, but many who try it find that it falls short of their needs. Thankfully, there are many Asana alternatives on the market, many of which are more powerful and offer a wide range of features that are currently lacking in Asana’s portfolio.

Let’s first explore Asana’s features and understand what it does and what it doesn’t do. After that, we’ll delve into 10 Asana alternatives that might better fit your needs. We gave each alternative a thorough test drive and we’ve listed them in descending order or preference.

How Asana Works

Asana has positioned itself as a work management platform. It can be used by teams to help them stay on top of their assignmentswhether those are project tasks or daily tasks for everyday business.

Asana’s most well-known feature is its task lists, a basic task management tool that allows project managers to assign tasks and set due dates. The timeline acts as a barebones Gantt chart that maps tasks over a timeline which is helpful when planning a project.

Its kanban boards are popular, too. They’re a simple and user-friendly feature for teams to visually manage their work, resulting in increased productivity. Of course, Asana hardly corners the market in this regard as there are many Asana alternatives that offer project management tools to help teams stay on track and control their work—without Asana’s downsides.

Why Seek an Asana Alternative?

Asana’s task management software ability is lacking. Task management should be the centerpiece of any work management or project management tool, but with Asana, tasks can only be assigned to one person, which limits team collaboration. While this might not always be a problem, it becomes one if you’re assigning more than one team member to a task.

Unlike ProjectManager, one of the best Asana alternatives on the list, Asana offers no automation. Automation helps to streamline workflow, reduce busy work and fulfill the empty promise Asana makes to boost team productivity.

On top of that, if you want to plan long-term, complex projects with the Asana timeline feature, you’re going to encounter challenges due to its lack of project management features compared to an Asana alternative with a traditional Gantt chart.

If you’re an Asana user who’s hit the wall of what the software can do, or if you’re simply looking for work management or project management software that fits your needs, we’ve tested a handful of the best Asana alternatives for you. There’s sure to be an alternative with the right project management tools to suit your work.

2023 Best Asana Alternative Software Rankings

1. ProjectManagerProjectManager logo, one of the best Asana alternatives for work & project management

ProjectManager compiles your favorite project management tools in one easy-to-use platform. It’s an award-winning work and project management software designed to help project managers plan, monitor and report on projects while providing teams the tools they need to collaborate and work more productively together. No matter if you have minimal project management experience or you’re a seasoned professional, you’ll be able to tap into the range of impressive benefits that ProjectManager has to offer.

Asana vs. ProjectManager

Like Asana, ProjectManager has kanban boards, task lists and reporting features. While Asana has timelines for scheduling tasks, you can’t filter for the critical path or set a baseline to track your planned effort against your actual effort in real-time. ProjectManager offers multiple project views; from Gantt charts and sheet views to task lists, calendars and kanban boards, everyone can work how they please. All views share real-time data so there’s one source of truth and task approvals help maintain project quality. Users can comments at the task level, share files and more—all in real-time. Whether you’re in an office or working remotely, everyone can collaborate and work more productively together.

A screenshot of the Kanban board project view

Track Progress and Performance in Real-Time

Track your team’s work as it happens with time tracking and task management features with live dashboards that automatically populate with data across the software. There’s no setup required as with other Asana alternatives. The real-time dashboard collects live data and displays digestible metrics on workload, budgets and costs. Use the dashboard to create instant reports to share with project stakeholders and quickly understand what projects are running smoothly and what projects require your attention.

ProjectManager’s dashboard view, which shows six key metrics on a project

These powerful reporting features alone put ProjectManager at the top of our list of Asana alternatives, but there is so much more that the tool offers. Use it to balance your workload and take advantage of other resource management tools such as timesheets to help track progress. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

Pricing

  • Team: $13.00 user/month
  • Business: $24.00 user/month

Q&A

  • Does ProjectManager offer a free trial? Yes, ProjectManager has a 30-day free trial
  • Does ProjectManager have a mobile project management app? Yes, it’s available for Android and iOS

2. Workzoneworkzone software logo, one of the best Asana alternatives

Workzone is an Asana alternative for marketing teams, ad agencies and other organizations that manage many projects. The software has been around for a couple of decades which shows that Workzone has built a loyal following. Workzone has more features than some entry-level project management software solutions and is easier to use than Asana. It offers budget management, collaborative tools, Gantt charts, portfolio management and works best with traditional project management methodologies.

However, Workzone isn’t designed to work within an agile framework, something that many teams prefer. There’s also no kanban board for visualizing workflows. Moreover, its workload and time tracking offerings are less than ideal as it doesn’t display cumulative hours for team members. There have also been complaints about its user interface needing improvement. Workzone doesn’t offer anything like Asana’s templates to help set up the software, meaning manual setup is required. There are other Asana alternatives that can cover these gaps, but Workzone might still be useful to your team.

Pricing

  • Team: $24 user/month
  • Professional: $34 user/month
  • Enterprise: $43 user/month

Q&A

  • Does Workzone offer a free trial? Yes, Workzone has a 30-day free trial
  • Does Workzone have a mobile project management app? Yes, it’s available for Android and iOS

3. Teamworkteamwork software logo, one of the best Asana alternatives

Teamwork is a simpler alternative to Asana which focuses on team collaboration. It’s meant for teams focused on a simple user interface and clean design versus those seeking complex project management software. Because of this, Teamwork appeals to those who work in an agile framework with tools like kanban boards and work management features. Teamwork is not one software, but a suite of different ones, including Teamwork Projects, Teamwork Desk (for help desk) and Teamwork Chat. This creates both flexibility and confusion.

The software often crosses the line from simple to generic. It’s a one-size-fits-all solution that lacks advanced Gantt charts or other time-tracking, task management and project planning features. Teamwork Projects can also make it difficult to set up projects, add tasks, set start and end dates and assign tasks to team members. Teamwork is a collaborative tool that can help with work management, but if you need advanced project management features, you might need to look for more Asana alternatives.

Pricing

  • Deliver plan: $10 user/month
  • Grow plan: $18 user/month

Q&A

  • Does Teamwork offer a free trial? Yes, Teamwork has a 30-day free trial
  • Does Teamwork have a mobile project management app? Yes, it’s available for Android and iOS

4. Todoisttodoist software logo, one of the best Asana alternatives

Another Asana alternative is Todoist. As the name suggests, this is a great app for tackling your to-do task lists. Todoist is focused solely on task management, which makes it an ideal tool for people looking to prioritize tasks and get productive without learning to use more complex project planning software. It’s easy to add tasks and recurring due dates. Plus you can view all your tasks at once to get a bird’s eye view. Todoist’s “favorites” function helps users focus on key projects, labels or filters so essential details don’t fall through the cracks. Tasks can also be shared which makes this more than a grocery list app.

However, since you can only view tasks as a list, Todoist lacks the basic functionality to be an effective project management app. There are no Gantt charts, calendar views or kanban boards to facilitate workflows. In addition, only individual tasks, not projects can have due dates. Plus, you can’t mark a project as complete. There is a free version but its offerings are limited. While the paid version gives you more bells and whistles and is a great free Asana alternative, but if you’re going to pony up the cash, you’d do better with other Asana alternatives.

Pricing

  • Pro: $3 user/month
  • Business: $5 user/month

Q&A

  • Does Todoist offer a free trial? No, Todoist doesn’t have a free trial
  • Does Todoist have a mobile project management app? Yes, it’s available for Android and iOS

5. Podiopodio software logo, one of the best Asana alternatives

Another work management alternative to Asana is Podio. It’s a great productivity tool that can keep track of client contacts and other key information such as notes from meetings. There are customizable templates that help users get started that much faster. Podio helps facilitate team collaboration and helps with project organization, especially when a project deals with external teams. It also acts as a collaborative bridge between team members from different departments in an organization.

Podio can track tasks and multiple projects while organizing them by group and colleagues. But because it’s a very specific project and task management software, it’s not the best project management software for project implementation.

Pricing

  • Basic: $7.20 user/month
  • Plus: $11.20 user/month
  • Premium: $19.20 user/month

Q&A

  • Does Podio offer a free trial? No, Podio doesn’t have a free trial
  • Does Podio have a mobile project management app? Yes, it’s available for Android and iOS

6. Trellotrello, one of the best asana alternatives for kanban boards

Trello is a task management software that uses kanban boards to organize work. That’s both its strength and weakness. While its kanban boards are fully customizable and help users manage work and workflow for in-house and remote teams, putting all its eggs in the kanban basket is going to frustrate many users.

It’s flexible enough for light agile work and has a user-friendly interface. Data syncs across devices when working which is also a plus. But if you’re looking to manage resources, then you’re out of luck. In fact, even though Trello focuses on kanban boards, the boards could be improved. For example, there are no swimlanes or work-in-progress (WIP) limits. While Trello is a user-friendly tool that’s pretty good for kanban beginners, there are other Asana alternatives that offer a wider feature set.

Pricing

  • Standard: $5 user/month
  • Premium: $10 user/month
  • Enterprise: $17.50 user/month

Q&A

  • Does Trello offer a free trial? Yes, Trello has a 14-day free trial
  • Does Trello have a mobile project management app? Yes, it’s available for Android and iOS

7. JiraJIRA, one of the best Asana alternatives for project management

Jira is a software product of Atlassian and is often used for tracking issues in software development. But Jira has grown to be used outside of the IT segment for tracking a range of issues, tasks and work items. What it might lack in features is made up on the Atlassian Marketplace where many plugins can be purchased to extend the tool’s features.

Customers have complained that while this Asana alternative does have a mobile app, it pales in comparison to the web version of the software. If you’ve been using different software to manage your tasks and want to migrate that work into Jira, you’ll find it complex. There’s also a limit to file size uploads that can be frustrating if you want to upload an image.

Pricing

  • Free for up to 10 users
  • Standard: $7.50 per user
  • Premium: $14.50 per user
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Q&A

  • Does Jira offer a free trial? Yes, Jira offers a 7-day free trial
  • Does Jira have a mobile project management app? Yes, it’s available for Android and iOS

8. ClickUpClickup, one of the best Asana alternatives for team collaboration

ClickUp is cloud-based work management software that is flexible enough for businesses and teams of all sizes. It’s a good collaborative tool for teams and clients to save documents. It also makes it easy to assign tasks to teams and manage projects. It has task management features that allow you to track changes, create schedules and create reports.

In fact, there are so many features that it can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re new to the software, which means a steep learning curve. It also has customization that offers too many choices and can leave a user paralyzed. On top of that, the UI isn’t great. It can be confusing and get in the way of what you want to do, which is your work. ClickUp provides variety when it comes to team collaboration, but lacks other benefits that other Asana alternatives offer.

Pricing

  • Unlimited: $5 user/month
  • Business: $9 user/month
  • Business Pro: $19 user/month

Q&A

  • Does ClickUp offer a free trial? No, ClickUp doesn’t have a free trial
  • Does ClickUp have a mobile project planning app? Yes, it’s available for Android and iOS

9. ProofHubProofhub, one of the top 10 asana alternatives

ProofHub is another cloud-based project management software made to help plan, collaborate and organize work. Project managers are able to communicate with teams and clients, share information and all in an easy-to-use tool that is intuitive and quick for most to pick up and use.

This Asana alternative has kanban boards, Gantt charts and a chat feature for collaborating, but there is limited interaction with other software platforms, a problem for most users who need more than one tool to complete their work. There are also issues with tracking and many features can be a bit buggy. This on top of minimal budgeting tools is a problem.

Pricing

  • Essential: $45 per month, flat pricing.
  • Ultimate Control: $89 per month, flat pricing.

Q&A

  • Does ProofHub offer a free trial? Yes, ProofHub offers a 14-day free trial
  • Does ProofHub have a mobile project management app? Yes, it’s available for Android and iOS

10. WrikeWrike, one of the top 10 asana alternatives

Wrike is project management software chock full of features that are configurable depending on how users want to work. While it’s not the best Asana alternative, Wrike offers task lists, kanban boards and Gantt charts in addition to reporting tools and integration with third-party apps such as Google Drive and Dropbox.

With all of those features, however, the software can be hard to learn and even more difficult to master. It can be a pain to onboard, especially for users with no project management experience. There’s a dashboard but it doesn’t have the ability to filter unwanted data. Wrike can also be slow to load and users have complained about its confusing UI. Before making a decision you’ll need to consider your team’s opinions and discuss whether Wrike is a good fit for the organization. If not, you should consider exploring other Asana alternatives.

Pricing

  • Professional plan: $9.80 user/month
  • Business plan: $24.80 user/month

Q&A

  • Does Wrike offer a free trial? Yes, Wrike has a 14-day free trial
  • Does Wrike have a mobile project management app? Yes, it’s available for Android and iOS.

If you’re looking for the best Asana alternative, look no further than ProjectManager. While there are plenty of software alternatives that do what Asana does and more, none of them have the array of features that make ProjectManager the go-to tool for all your work management and project management needs. Manage your tasks on a Gantt chart, kanban board, list or calendar, collaborate with team members and track progress with a real-time dashboard and one-click reporting. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

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