The best Asana alternatives in 2024
Asana is a great project management tool but it’s not perfect, so we have rounded up the best Asana alternatives so you don't need to
In our opinion, Asana is the best project management software out there, but that doesn’t automatically mean it’s right for you. So, to make sure you don’t end up frustrated from using the wrong tool for the job, we’ve put together this list of the best alternatives to Asana, each with its own distinct advantage over our reigning champ.
For example, if Asana doesn’t have quite the right combination of features that you need, then you may find these picks work better for you. As much as we like it, in our Asana review we also go over a few of the things that the program could do better, and it may be that those are exactly the hurdles you’re dealing with.
Another big issue is likely to be Asana’s pricing, which is definitely on the high side. In fact, it may be the most expensive project management solution on the market. No matter how good a tool is, if it hurts your bottom line then you’re going to need another option, preferably before the payments really start to bite.
READ NEXT: What is Kanban? Everything you need to know
Best Asana alternatives: At a glance
| Best Asana alternative overall | Monday.com | View offers at Monday.com |
| Best Asana alternative for Gantt charts | Wrike | View offers at Wrike |
| Best Asana alternative for kanban | Trello | View offers at Trello |
How to choose the best Asana alternative for you
You’ve determined that you no longer want to use Asana, but how do you pick the right alternative for you instead? The easiest way is to figure out what you don’t like about Asana, and then go from there.
As we mentioned, the most obvious problem with Asana is the pricing, which is high. Though the free plan is great, Asana’s cheapest paid plan is barely shy of £10 per user per month. That’s an awful lot of money, especially in a market where most of the competition’s low-end plans cost £6 or £7 per user per month, with some going even lower. The upshot of this is that you can choose practically any other project management tool and it will come out cheaper.
Of course, price isn’t all that matters – other considerations also come into play. For example, it could be that you simply don’t like the way Asana handles tasks. Though Asana is pretty flexible in this regard, there’s no denying that its backbone is in its list. If you’re not a fan of this approach and try to go against it, Asana may baulk a little, which will lead to some frustration.
Another potential problem might be that you need a Gantt chart – a type of bar chart used to map out how tasks depend on each other across an easy-to-read timeline – and you don’t like how Asana handles this. We’ve also heard of some grousing over how the calendar works (or doesn’t) in Asana.
Though none of these issues are necessarily dealbreakers in and of themselves, taken together and combined with the high costs, it may be time to look around and see if you can get a project management tool that suits you a little better.
How we test Asana alternatives
Finding a good replacement for Asana isn’t easy – it’s our favourite provider for a reason after all – but we rounded up five alternatives that we feel do a good job.
First, of course, is price: all of these picks are cheaper than Asana, sometimes significantly so. We have a few picks that have roughly the same functionality as Asana, but at a greatly reduced price so, if your main issue is budget, these are excellent options.
We also narrowed down some differences in functionality where Asana could do with improvement for some users. In those cases, we simply selected a service that handled that particular aspect more competently – for example, Trello handles kanban boards a lot better than Asana.
The result is a motley list where a strong case can be made for each and every entry. We’ve put together five great project management tools that can serve as amazing alternatives to Asana. All of them have been rigorously tested and will work just as well as Asana does.
READ NEXT: The 5 best Trello alternatives to try
The best Asana alternatives you can buy in 2024
1. Monday.com: Best Asana alternative overall
Price when reviewed: From £9/mth (per user) | View offers at Monday.com
Our top Asana alternative is Monday.com, which often feels like another version of Asana, at least in its basic functionality. Like Asana, it uses the list as the starting point for all tasks, with other views acting as secondaries. Its interface also shares a lot with Asana and once you’re used to one, you’ll quickly be proficient with the other.
However, when you compare Asana with Monday.com further, you’ll quickly see some striking differences too. For one, Monday.com is even more flexible than Asana, letting you move interface elements around at will. For another, Monday.com offers different advanced features than Asana does, including a slightly better timeline and Gantt chart.
Finally, Monday.com holds an edge when it comes to money. Monday.com’s pricing is roughly a pound less per user per month for the basic package, a difference that racks up quickly for larger teams. Advanced plans are even cheaper, meaning that companies with more exact needs can save an awful lot of money by choosing Monday.com over Asana.
Read our full Monday.com review
2. Wrike: Best Asana alternative for Gantt charts
Price when reviewed: From £8/mth (per user) | View offers at Wrike
Another great all-rounder is Wrike, which we like for a few reasons. It’s a fully featured project management solution that offers all basic functionality – and a few more advanced ones too – and could, in a pinch, replace Asana completely for a reasonable price.
However, the main reason we included it here is because it does one vital thing better than Asana does, and that’s Gantt charts. Not every team will use them – and plenty of project managers don’t even know how to – but if you’re in an industry where many tasks are dependent on other tasks, you will need them daily. Asana’s aren’t very good, while Wrike’s is excellent.
Wrike also does better than Asana when it comes to pricing, costing just £8 per user per month, rather than the £10 Asana charges. Considering that the feature packets are practically identical, it’s a lot of savings, even if Wrike’s interface is a bit drab compared to Asana’s cheery demeanour.
Read our full Wrike review
3. Trello: Best Asana alternative for kanban
Price when reviewed: From £4/mth (per user) | View offers at Trello
Next up is Trello, which is best known – and rightly so – as a kanban tool. If you feel like you don’t need all of Asana’s bells and whistles, and would like to just have a board, then Trello is the logical choice. On top of that, a smart user could do lots with it and never have to pay a penny, something we explain further in our Trello review.
The reason we like Trello’s board so much is simply ease of use: though Asana does a great job giving you an overview, no matter which view you’re in, Trello does something special that’s hard to capture. Its board is simply easier to manage than any other of its type, making it the only tool worth mentioning if your project needs kanban.
That said, as we explain in our article comparing Trello and Asana, if you need more than a board, Trello isn’t such a great choice. Not only will you need to start paying for it, but its secondary functions just aren’t all that impressive – Trello is very much a one-trick pony.
Read our full Trello review
4. ClickUp: Best Asana alternative on a budget
Price when reviewed: Starts at £4/mth (per user) | View offers at ClickUp
Another great all-rounder is ClickUp, which has stolen some of Asana’s homework and then put its own spin on it. Though it can be used as a full project management suite, like Wrike or Monday.com, its main strength is that it can do much of what Asana can, but at bargain-bin prices.
When you go over ClickUp’s pricing, you’ll quickly notice that it really pushes the monthly cost down as low as it can go, letting you use it for just £4 per user per month. This makes ClickUp one of the cheapest project management tools out there, while still remaining completely functional.
That said, ClickUp is a pretty new player in the game and, at times, it does show. There are some bugs in its software, and many of its functions and features are still being worked on, or at least not completely finished yet. Still, for the price, it may well be worth the occasional annoyance, especially if you can get nearly as much done as with Asana.
Read our full ClickUp review
5. Teamwork: Best Asana alternative for hourly billing
Price when reviewed: From £6/mth (per user) | View offers at Teamwork
Finally, we have Teamwork, which is a new entry into the market, but worth mentioning as an Asana alternative. Like ClickUp, it copies from some of the more established project management tools but puts its own spin on it. For one, it has some basic accounting functions built right in, making it an interesting option for small firms that want to keep their number-crunching in-house.
The most interesting of these functions is keeping track of, and billing, your hours. Though Asana has some interesting plugins to help you track hours – a popular program called Harvest is even built in – few project management tools take it to the heights that Teamwork has. This makes it ideal for lawyers, accountants, and anybody else who invoice clients by the hour.
Even for people that don’t fit that particular bill, Teamwork is interesting thanks to its many abilities and its friendly interface, not to mention that, at £6 per user per month, it’s still a fair lot cheaper than Asana too.
Read our full Teamwork review