Asana Review: Complete Guide for 2024

Asana has become synonymous with project management. Used by companies like Spotify, Airbnb, and NASA, it's designed to help teams coordinate work efficiently. But with so many project management tools available, is Asana still the right choice for your team?

We spent 45 days testing Asana across multiple team sizes and project types. In this comprehensive review, we'll cover everything from its core features to pricing, and help you decide if it's the right fit.

What is Asana?

Asana is a web and mobile application designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work. Founded in 2008 by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and engineer Justin Rosenstein, Asana was born out of the need for better team coordination at fast-growing tech companies.

Today, Asana serves over 130,000 paying customers worldwide, from small startups to Fortune 500 companies. It's particularly popular among marketing teams, product development groups, and operations departments.

Key Features

Here's what makes Asana stand out from the competition:

• Multiple Project Views: Switch between List, Board (Kanban), Timeline (Gantt), and Calendar views. Each view offers a different perspective on your work.
• Tasks & Subtasks: Break down complex work into manageable pieces. Assign owners, set due dates, and add descriptions with rich formatting.
• Timeline View: Visualize project schedules with a Gantt-style timeline. See dependencies between tasks and identify potential bottlenecks.
• Portfolios: Track the status of multiple projects in one place. Perfect for managers overseeing several initiatives.
• Workload Management: See team capacity at a glance and redistribute work to prevent burnout.
• Automation (Rules): Automate routine tasks like moving cards, assigning tasks, or updating custom fields based on triggers.
• Forms: Create intake forms to standardize how work requests come into your team.

Who Should Use Asana?

Asana is particularly well-suited for:

• Marketing Teams: Managing campaigns, content calendars, and creative projects.
• Product Teams: Tracking feature development, bug fixes, and sprint planning.
• Operations Teams: Coordinating cross-functional projects and recurring workflows.
• Remote Teams: Keeping distributed teams aligned and accountable.
• Agencies: Managing client work and internal projects in separate workspaces.

Pricing Breakdown

Asana offers four pricing tiers:

• Basic (Free): Up to 15 users, unlimited tasks and projects, list/board/calendar views.
• Premium ($10.99/user/month): Timeline view, advanced search, custom fields, forms.
• Business ($24.99/user/month): Portfolios, workload, goals, advanced integrations.
• Enterprise (Custom pricing): SAML SSO, data export, custom branding, priority support.

Asana vs ClickUp

Integrations

Asana integrates with over 200 apps, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Jira, Zoom, and Dropbox. The API is well-documented for custom integrations, and Zapier connectivity opens up thousands more possibilities.

What We Didn't Like

• No Built-in Time Tracking: You'll need a third-party integration like Harvest or Toggl.
• Limited Reporting on Lower Tiers: Advanced dashboards require Business plan or higher.
• Can Be Overkill for Small Projects: Solo users or tiny teams might find it overwhelming.
• No Native Docs: Unlike Notion or ClickUp, there's no built-in document collaboration.

Final Verdict

Asana strikes an excellent balance between power and usability. It's sophisticated enough for enterprise teams yet approachable for project management newcomers. The generous free plan makes it easy to try, and the clean interface means your team will actually use it.

Our recommendation: If you need a reliable, well-designed project management tool that scales with your team, Asana is a top choice. Start with the free plan to test the waters, then upgrade when you need advanced features.