In a 2022 survey, 43% of respondents said using work collaboration tools increased significantly at their companies. And the demand for project management and collaboration tools continues to rise.
One report estimates this market will grow at a 10.67% CAGR in the next five years. It’s no wonder – these tools help your team become more efficient and productive. Keeping track of tasks and projects is much easier with these platforms.
Although Asana is a popular choice, there are many Asana alternatives with similar or even better features that might be more suitable for you. In this article, we’ll explore the best Asana alternatives that let you manage your workflows.
Why should you consider Asana alternatives?
Asana is a complex project management tool allowing teams to manage work in one place. Although useful, there are some drawbacks of Asana you should consider:
The tool has limited task assignments. Let’s say that you want to assign multiple people to one task. You’d need to create copies of that task and assign each copy to a different individual. It’s the only way for you to give the same task to numerous people.
Asana has a steep learning curve. Users must invest time and effort to make the most of the tool’s robust project management features. Other alternatives for project management are more beginner-friendly than Asana.
Another reason to explore Asana alternatives is the cost. Its paid plan costs $10.99 per user a month. You can find more affordable platforms that enable team collaboration and task management.
Asana alternatives: Selection criteria
Here are the criteria we took into account when selecting Asana alternatives:
Features
Integrations
Pricing
Features
We took into account the following features that a powerful project management tool should have:
Task management – to ensure you can set deadlines, create checklists, add attachments, and automate recurring tasks
Communication – to enable team conversation for different tasks
Collaboration – to bring your team closer and allow them to collaborate on projects and tasks
Customization options – to ensure you can tailor how the tool looks to your liking
Integrations
Asana alternatives for project management should integrate with tools every team uses, such as:
Communication tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack
Calendar
Other integrations based on the software your team commonly uses
Pricing
We explored tools that cost less than $10 per user a month or slightly above this figure.
Top 6 Asana alternatives for team productivity
Let’s see the top Asana alternatives based on the above criteria.
workstreams.ai
workstreams.ai is a workflow management tool that lets you manage tasks from a centralized location.
The platform aims to help project managers spend less time on tedious and repetitive work. Instead of creating tasks from scratch, you can use established project management workflows to speed up the process and focus on multiple projects.
workstreams.ai is also a task management tool. You can add deadlines, checklists, descriptions, or attachments to your tasks. Then, you can assign them to team members to track project progress.
Users can write comments, tag other members, or share notes to facilitate team collaboration and communication. Through our Slack integration, each task gets its own discussion thread, which makes it easy for everyone to find information.
As a team management software tool, workstreams.ai has project planning and progress-tracking features. Our time allocation feature is excellent for time tracking. It measures task durations so that you know which tasks take up more time. The frozen tasks feature takes care of inactive tasks to eliminate irrelevant projects from the team board.
As for customization, workstreams.ai lets you create custom workflows to increase efficiency. You can also customize tasks. For instance, you can add custom fields like priority levels.
The tool integrates with Microsoft Teams, Slack, Trello, Webhook, Google Calendar, and Outlook Calendar (you can even integrate our in-app calendar with these two).
Pricing
Free plan – free for teams of up to 3 members
Pro plan – $7.99 per user/month, with unlimited users
Enterprise plan – custom pricing available upon request
monday.com
Image source: PCMag
monday.com is a work management tool for managing projects, tasks, or workflows. It's suitable for project managers who are after visual project tracking. You can use Kanban, Gantt, or calendar views to get the big picture.
monday.com offers numerous task management features. For example, you can assign ownership, set priority levels, add deadlines, or create to-do lists for each task.
Users can leverage the status column feature to communicate with their project manager. This feature eliminates the need for meetings. If your team member requires no help, they’ll let you know in the status column.
If you want to communicate about a specific task or project, you can use the monday.com update section feature. Users can add notes and reminders or ask questions. All communication is centralized in one place. It also allows team members to collaborate.
This project management software comes with customizable templates. Instead of creating a project flow, you can use the existing project templates to track progress and push work forward.
As for integrations, you can sync monday.com with platforms like Salesforce, Slack, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and many more.
Related: monday.com alternatives and Marketing project management software
Pricing
Free plan
Basic plan – €8 per user/month
Standard plan – €10 per user/month
Pro plan – €16 per user/month
Enterprise plan – custom pricing available upon request
Airtable
Image source: G2
Airtable is a cloud-based project management solution. It is a versatile platform enabling content operations, marketing campaign management, events planning, and more. Within Airtable, you have access to spreadsheets, databases, and calendars.
It might be interesting for project managers who require a visual project management tool. You can organize everything in a list, including complex projects, which lets you see even the tiniest details. Alternatively, you can visualize your work with the timeline view.
Regarding task management, this Asana alternative lets you organize your tasks by priority or the due date. You can also display all tasks on a calendar to see which ones require your immediate attention. All completed assignments are visible in one list to ensure team members are on the same page.
Airtable facilitates team collaboration. You can share access to information with specific people or invite anyone to submit data in one form. Users can leave comments under each task to give others context. They can also view revision history to know what’s been changed.
You can integrate this project management software with Slack, Mailchimp, Zapier, and Microsoft Teams, among other platforms. The layout and themes are fully customizable to fit your needs.
Related: Airtable alternatives
Pricing
Free plan – this is good for small teams
Plus plan – $10 per seat a month
Pro plan – $20 per seat a month
Enterprise plan – custom pricing available upon request
Basecamp
Image source: PCMag
Basecamp is among the popular project management tools. The Asana alternative is simple by design. It gives you the basic tools for managing projects but doesn’t include advanced organization features. Let’s see what we mean by that.
Its task management features allow you to organize all projects and assignments on one screen. However, the time-tracking option is only available through third-party integrations with apps like Day.io.
Among the essential features is the Basecamp Ping – the tool’s version of direct messages allowing users to interact with others right from Basecamp. That way, all project- or task-related discussions are centralized.
Creating custom reports and dashboards is possible if you integrate your Basecamp account with analytics platforms such as Easy Insight. You can then visualize all projects through charts and calendars.
You can integrate Basecamp with tools like Zapier, Clockify, and Zoho Projects. However, a third-party integration tool is needed to integrate it with apps like Trello and Slack.
Related: Basecamp alternatives
Pricing
Basecamp doesn’t offer a free plan like most project management tools we mentioned. However, there is a free trial. Here are paid plans:
Basecamp plan – $15 per user/month
Basecamp Pro Unlimited – for $299 a month, you get unlimited users and every feature Basecamp offers
Smartsheet
Image source: G2
Smartsheet is a work and project management system. It’s an Asana alternative that helps you monitor the entire project from start to finish. Let’s explore its key features.
This intuitive project management platform lets you create tasks and subtasks. You can set task dependencies to define and track more complex projects. The scheduling feature sends alerts and reminders to assignees so they finish their tasks on time.
As for reporting features, Smartsheet builds custom reports for all tasks, including unassigned and due. The tool also tracks statuses and metrics in real time to help you understand how productive your team is.
With Smartsheet, every user can share their work with others. For instance, they can share Smartsheet data as an attachment via email or generate a unique URL so anyone can access reports or dashboards without logging in.
The customization options are available on paid plans. Users can change the background or use their own logo. There is also custom branding to add your brand’s visual identity to Smartsheet.
Smartsheet integrates with a wide range of tools, including:
Communication tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Chat
Data visualization platforms such as Power BI and Tableau
Content creation solutions like Adobe Creative Cloud and Miro
Related: Smartsheet alternatives
Pricing
Free plan
Pro plan – $7 per user/month
Business plan – $25 per user/month
Enterprise plan – custom pricing available upon request
Trello
Image source: G2
Trello is a popular project management tool. It has a simple user interface, which makes it suitable for non-tech-savvy people. All you need to do is create boards and cards to start managing projects. Let’s delve deeper into its project management features.
With Trello, you can manage tasks effectively. It allows you to:
Set deadlines
Define the priority
Create checklists
Attach files
Automate recurring tasks
Effective communication is crucial for every team. Trello knows that, allowing you to interact with colleagues in comment threads. You can discuss tasks, share ideas, or give updates under each card.
Another of its key features is that it facilitates collaboration. You can assign multiple team members to tasks. They can leave real-time updates to help you with progress tracking.
Like most Asana alternatives, Trello lets you create custom fields and add labels. This allows you to personalize workflows and manage your project more effectively.
You can integrate Trello with apps like Slack, Miro, Jira Cloud, and Dropbox.
Pricing
Trello offers both free and paid plans:
Free plan – you can create unlimited tasks
Standard plan – $5 per user/month
Premium plan – $10 per user/month
Enterprise plan – $17.50 per user/month
The best Asana alternatives: Comparison table
| Platform | Key features | Pricing starting at | Free trial |
Asana |
| $10.99 per user a month | Yes |
workstreams.ai |
| $7.99 per user a month | Yes |
monday.com |
| €8 per user a month | Yes |
Airtable |
| $10 per user a month | Yes |
Basecamp |
| $15 per user a month | Yes |
Smartsheet |
| $7 per user a month | Yes |
Trello |
| $5 per user a month | Yes |
Conclusion
Having a project management tool that works for your team is crucial. We suggest you review all the features to determine which ones you need. It will help you manage projects and tasks more effectively.
If you need a project management tool that lets you collaborate, use advanced task features, and optimize your workflow, choose workstreams.ai. You can use it to streamline hiring, IT development, customer support, marketing, and many other projects.
FAQs
- Is a free version of Asana enough?
The free version of Asana is enough for smaller teams. It lets you create unlimited tasks, projects, and activity logs.
- Is Asana the best for project management?
The answer depends on your needs. The tool has advanced project management features like workflow builder and Kanban boards, but it can be overwhelming for beginners. If you need a simple, agile project management tool ideal for small-to-medium-size businesses, try workstreams.ai.
- What is the limitation of Asana?
One limitation of Asana is that it has a steep learning curve. You will need guidance to master all the features the platform offers.
- Is Trello similar to Asana?
Yes, the tools are similar because they both are project management tools. However, there are some differences. Asana is perfect for projects involving many people, whereas Trello is a better choice if you need a visual project management platform. We suggest you explore their feature lists to determine which tool suits your needs best.
