Asana Review

I’ve recently been interested in project management tools and, most notably, Asana.

So I began using the free version of Asana to manage and organize my projects, basically using it as a daily planner and an organization tool.

For this Asana review, I want to share my own and other user experiences with the software.

Asana is a collaborative and project management tool that directly supports teams and freelancers.

Asan boasts powerful integration, informative analytics, project timelines, and Kanban boards.

Through its extensive features, users get a level of value unmatched by its competitors.

When it comes to value, Asana provides.

Overview Asana

Here is a brief overview of Asana to summarize all the essential aspects you need to know.

What Is Asana?

Asana’s primary function as a collaborative project management tool succeeds through its communication tools, integrations, analytics, and project timeline.

It’s easy to use and has a lifetime free plan, but unfortunately, the software has a steep learning curve and less than ideal customer support representatives.

Asana History

Asana was founded in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein.

The two got the idea to create Asana when they saw how time-consuming the project planning and organization process was.

Essentially, the actual work took a backseat to the planning and organization aspect of projects, severely increasing project time and diminishing the quality of projects.

Asana was born to provide an easy and effective way to plan and organize projects so real work can get done.

Pros and Cons of Asana

No application is without fault, and Asana is still far from perfect.

Here are some pros and cons of the software.

How Much Does Asana Cost?

The basic plan of Asana, and where you get the most value, is entirely free.

This plan is ideal for freelancers who don’t need extensive project management features or large teams to organize.

If you’re going to pay for a premium subscription, Asana costs a fair bit.

Additionally, the pricing model is downright confusing for users.

Starting at $10.99 annually per user, Asana forces users to pay for at least +2 people.

Your total price will be near $22 per month for two users.

Is Asana Worth the Cost?

The free version is worth the price. I cannot stress that enough.

The paid version, on the other hand, is only worth the cost if you manage to get value from your smaller teams.

It is worth the value for two or more members using the premium plan.

You get no real value from one user.

Why Is Asana Worth the Cost

You don’t have to upgrade to the premium version and can continue to take advantage of the free version of Asana.

Additionally, you can cancel your premium subscription anytime, and you won’t be charged for the following payment to continue your payment.

The premium version of Asana offers so many useful features and integrations that the value you can get from Asana becomes limitless.

Still, you do have to make an effort to get that value from the software.

The Problem Asana Solves

Asana provides a solution for teams that need to collaborate to complete projects. Asana enables teams to stay on track and progress through projects smoothly without confusion or interruptions.

Why Would Somebody Want to Use Asana?

Asana is one of the most valuable collaborative and project management tools. If you’re looking for a better way to organize your team and projects, Asana is the software you want to use.

Who Is Asana Best For?

Asana is best for freelancers or team-based organizations, typically on the smaller side.

Why Asana Is Best for Freelance and Small Business Teams

The value from Asana comes from how the organization uses the software with the amount of money you pay. Users can take advantage of the basic version of Asana up until 15 seats, then pay for premium and business plan features.

Even if you want to pay for the premium features, you’ll get massive value from what you pay. The project management features exist at the base level of Asana, so the value you get from it shows an immediate impact even at the basic plan.

Who Should Not Use Asana?

Solo freelancers do not benefit from Asana as much. If you’re paying for the premium version of Asana, you should have at least a team of two or more users to take full advantage of those features.

Why Solo Freelancers Should Not Use Asana Premium

Solo freelancers will not heavily benefit from the paid version of Asana as you have to pay for an additional seat you’re not using.

What To Think About Before Buying Asana

Before using Asana, you may want to consider the following.

• Do you need the premium features?
• How many people plan on using the software?
• Can your team take advantage of the features?
• Is this going to be your first time using a platform like this?
• Are you willing to learn the software?

Features and Benefits of Asana

Asana provides users with an insane amount of features.

For this Asana review, I want to list the most relevant ones that most users will use.

That’s not to say that the other features Asana provides aren’t helpful, but these are most certainly the most prominent for users.

1. Automation

Asana’s automation can do more for your team than you might initially think.

Their automation process aims to save users time to focus on more strategic aspects of their business operations.

The first important feature of Asana automation is its Custom Rules Builder, which boasts over 70+ rules.

Through these Rules, users can automate mundane and routine tasks.

Here are some of the things you can do with Asana’s automation.

Users can automatically direct new tasks to ongoing projects regardless of their project.

Being able to monitor and impact a project on short notice is where this feature becomes valuable.

One of the most helpful automation features is the ability to assign work to team members instantly.

When you create new tasks, you can automatically assign them based on their work type or project involvement.

Similar to assigning work, Asana will inform teammates when work is ready for them.

The software will add tasks to their project when conditions are complete so that work will progress naturally and smoothly.

Additionally, you can automatically give teammates visibility of projects when it is necessary to see progress on specific tasks or even become directly involved with them.

Impressively Asana has a feature that automatically updates deadlines.

You can continuously assign assignments with deadlines being consistent and shift those due dates if necessary.

If all of that sounds too complex for you to use, don’t worry.

Asana has templates that guide you with the best possible tactics.

These templates are prebuilt and can organize entire projects for you automatically.

Suppose you have your method for organizing projects.

In that case, Asana also allows you to create custom templates to apply to projects continuously, so you don’t waste time manually organizing and planning them again.

2. Asana Timeline

Asana’s Timeline feature gives you an overall live view of your projects.

This live view shows how all your projects fit together and communicates the plans’ overall objective and flow.

Every person with direct access to the Timeline can view the deadlines and proper priority of the projects.

Even if the project doesn’t have a deadline, Asana still organizes it within the Timeline in the Unscheduled Tasks section of the Timeline.

Asana’s Timeline feature is customizable to give users a better way to organize and clarify the importance of each task within the Timeline.

You can change the colors, edit the fields, and set connectors to define dependencies and priorities.

Asana can also create and organize a Timeline using your data from spreadsheets.

Reading a spreadsheet can be confusing and unclear for organization members, so creating a cohesive visual representation of the plan will develop a clear image to hit your deadline.

The Timeline feature wouldn’t be too helpful if people couldn’t access it, so Asana allows you to share your Timeline with anyone with a URL.

If the project is private, you can invite users to view the Timeline as followers.

The Timeline’s sole objective is to structure a cohesive picture for team members to follow and adjust as needed.

The significant part about Timeline is that it’s not static.

Instead, it’s an adaptive timeline that will change as needed.

3. Asana Reporting

The reporting feature provides users access to reliable visualization tools and impressive analytics.

Since Asana focuses on creating a better environment for collaboration, having robust reporting features is critical to user experience.

Asana’s reporting feature provides real-time insight into your current projects and gives you all the information you need to make critical strategic decisions.

The dashboard organizes all of your data and categorizes them for easy access.

Through their impressive data visualization, you can read and analyze your data fast.

For example, you can instantly see how many projects and tasks are due and the total you did each month.

Asana allows you to customize and organize different dashboards to better organize your information and reports.

For example, one dashboard can be dedicated entirely to time estimates and project completion, while another will note your goals and upcoming tasks.

The chart categories for displaying data on your dashboards are categorized.

You have resourcing, work health, and progress.

Each one gives you different charts, graphs, and visualizations to make your reports come to life.

Additionally, you can pull data from any of your existing projects or teams.

With templates or custom charts, your team members can create charts and graphs to present any of the data you submit.

4. Integrations

Asana allows users to utilize powerful integrations to enhance their experience within their platform.

Users can create a hub with Asana to use third-party applications efficiently through integration.

Every popular tool you’ll need for data visualization, communication, scheduling, and collaboration is available.

Asana allows users to integrate with 200+ applications.

Additionally, you can create and manage app widgets to see as much info as you need at a glance.

Tableau, Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft Teams, and even Looker are all available and fully supported by Asana.

Asana partners with companies like Google and Microsoft to ensure that their integrations are as fluent as possible.

You can incorporate these integrations throughout your entire organization as well.

This simple feature gives users a more manageable time unifying their organization regarding software.

Asana allows users to build custom applications through their API.

With total development support, you can create and integrate your custom applications.

If you can’t find the correct integration to help improve your Asana experience, they have an answer for that as well.

5. Asana’s Kanban Boards

This particular feature is the one I found most interesting, Kanban boards.

The old Kanban board.

A simple yet powerful project management tool that is utilized to this day by many teams.

The focus of a Kanban board is to help team members visualize work currently in progress.

Typically, Asana organizes your projects from left to right, and as the project progresses to the right, it nears completion.

Asana uses its powerful software to create an intuitive and beautiful-looking Kanban board for its users to utilize.

Through the Kanban board, you can plot out workflows and help foster unique team collaboration.

For project management, this feature is an absolute dream.

Project managers can physically see any disruptions in their project flow at a simple glance.

Knowing where there is trouble helps users fix and move their projects at a moment’s notice.

Additionally, through automation, you can set triggers to update and move your Kanban cards automatically.

The functionality of this software creates endless possibilities for optimizing workflow.

Asana Customer Service

If you’re a first-time user of a project management tool, you may need extra assistance getting your bearings and knowing the software.

Asana is known to have a pretty steep learning curve for newcomers.

Does Asana Offer Customer Service?

Asana offers customer service to its users through SMS, forum, and email support.

What Types of Customer Service Does Asana Offer?

Asana provides users with direct support with billing, technical, and developer issues.

Additionally, Asana offers users access to Asana Academy.

Asana Academy teaches users through training, webinars, and interactive courses.

Through the academy, you’ll understand the inner workings of the software and how to use it.

Why Should You Trust Us?

I’m someone who uses Asana to organize my projects and day-to-day.

Not only do I use the software, but I have other associates who have had experiences with Asana.

Additionally, I’ve read other users’ experiences with Asana and would like to share them with you.

What Asana Users are Saying

Asana doesn’t stand too well with users in the customer support department.

While the software may be great, its billing issues and general practices seem to irk most users.

Asana boasts a 2.7 on Trustpilot and a D- on BBB for failure to respond to complaints.

Jeff M. Writes,

“Asana refuses to refund the difference of the downgrade even at a prorated amount. They said they’ll put it as a credit on the account, which would take almost three years to use.”

Daniel Poor states,

“I think Asana is an excellent team-level PPM tool. HOWEVER, their sales and service are abysmal. I have been trying to get an enterprise sales lead to respond to me through multiple channels. But they are silent.”

Chad Sakonchick writes,

“Our productivity software of choice. This software has evolved well over time, and several of our automated systems run through Asana, and all of our teammates use this daily to make our business function.”

Asana Alternatives

Asana isn’t the only project management tool on the market, so I’ve listed the three most popular alternatives to Asana.

1. Pipedrive

With a focus on automation, Pipedrive functions to track team progress and provide analytics with AI technology.

How Does Pipedrive Differ From Asana?

Pipedrive is more than just a project management tool. It operates as a fantastic analytics tool, sales tracker, and CRM tool.

With sales and email software, Pipedrive differentiates itself from other project management tools by providing its users with insane features.

In addition, Pipedrive promotes features that fit businesses that need heavy organization utility.

Who Is Pipedrive Best For?

Pipedrive is software that benefits mid to large businesses.

But unfortunately, its features don’t have much use for smaller businesses and freelancers.

2. Monday.com

Monday.com is a team-based management tool that provides users with a visual overview of their projects and KPIs.

Their software aims for robust features but is known for being pricey.

How Does Monday.com Differ From Asana?

Monday.com focuses on creating an experience that provides businesses with a complete package.

They boast impressive security features, time tracking, and popular integration.

On the other hand, Asana focuses on delivering a great project management tool for freelancers and small businesses.

Who Is Monday.com Best For?

Monday.com is best for medium-sized businesses that have big teams.

3. Freshworks CRM

Another project management tool that utilizes automation and AI is Freshworks CRM.

Through this software, you can boost customer engagement, discover leads, and automate repetitive tasks.

How Does Freshworks CRM Differ From Asana

Unlike Asana, Freshworks CRM is multiple tools in one.

Asana operates on a manual scale while having some automation involved, focusing strictly on project management and completion.

Freshworks CRM is a central hub for organizing and growing your sales department, not just project completion.

Who Is Freshworks CRM Best For?

Freshworks CRM is best for freelancers and medium-sized businesses focusing on growth and unifying their software into one platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are plenty of questions users have about Asana, so I’d like to answer the most common ones I’ve seen.

Wrapping Up

Asana is an extraordinary project management tool.

It operates and functions amazingly with little to no complaints about technical issues or glitches.

Its excellent workflow, timelines, and integration provide solid and robust options for freelancers and businesses.

As a free tool, I can’t recommend Asana enough. Even so, it’s hard to ignore user complaints when paying for Asana.

I can’t safely recommend any paid versions of Asana without confidently knowing the company addresses billing issues plaguing users.

My strong recommendation is for businesses and strong teams that need extensive project management features from your software, pick Monday.com.

On the other hand, if you’re a solo entrepreneur with a small group, the basic version of Asana will get you where you need to go.  

By Brett Helling

Brett has been starting, growing, and monetizing websites since 2014. While in college, he began to learn about digital marketing. After graduating, he continued to build a diverse portfolio of websites while working a full time job. After years of building the portfolio on the side, he made the jump to run his websites full time.