Manage your team's work, projects, & tasks online
Asana is a work management platform by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. Trustpilot: 1.5/5 from 282 reviews. Called 'thieves and liars' for billing, 2 months to respond to cancellation. Powerful but polarizing pricing.
Patterns extracted from real user feedback — not raw reviews.
Asana doesn't allow single-user paid subscriptions. Solo users wanting premium features must purchase a minimum of 2 seats, meaning the real minimum cost is $264/year ($22/month) even for one person. This effectively prices out freelancers and solopreneurs who don't need a second seat.
The Starter plan ($10.99/user) limits automations to 250/month. With just 5 people and a few automation rules, teams hit this cap quickly. Once exceeded, you either stop automations or upgrade to Advanced ($24.99/user) - more than doubling your cost for a basic workflow need.
Asana has become more expensive over the years and now exceeds many competitors. Starter is $10.99/user/month, but accessing features like Portfolios or better reporting requires Advanced at $24.99/user. A 10-person team on Advanced pays $3,000/year. Reviews note it 'works better for companies with deep pockets.'
Single sign-on (SAML SSO) is only available on Enterprise, which has custom (expensive) pricing. Teams with 20-50 employees needing SSO for security compliance have no middle ground - they must pay enterprise rates regardless of team size. This one security requirement forces massive price jumps.
Asana reduced the free plan limit from 15 users to 10 users. Teams that fit under the old limit now must upgrade. The free plan also lacks Timeline/Gantt views, task start dates, and advanced search - features that seem basic for project management but require paid tiers.
G2 reviews cite 262 mentions of learning difficulty. Users report a 'time-consuming adjustment period to maximize its features.' The platform can feel overwhelming with complex subtask management, timeline navigation, and task duplication issues. Without structured training, new users face long ramp-up times.
Asana has no built-in time tracking on Personal or Starter plans. Users wanting to record time spent on tasks must use third-party integrations, which often require separate subscriptions. Reviews specifically cite this as a limitation, especially for agencies billing by hour.
A task can only be assigned to a single individual. While others can be added as 'collaborators,' this isn't true joint ownership. If two people need to review a document, you must create separate tasks. This limitation frustrates teams needing shared task responsibility.
G2 reviews cite 302 mentions of unintuitive features, struggling with duplications and timeline navigation. The conversion from tasks to subtasks and vice versa is 'not as simple as it should be.' Users experience confusion due to task duplication and complex task management (272 mentions).
Users on Asana Forum report the desktop app becoming 'unbearably slow' and the web interface lagging 'to the point of slow load screens and inability to type.' Tasks sometimes show empty screens for 10+ seconds before loading. Recent outages in January 2026 affected non-US users for ~50 minutes.
Powerful project management with multiple views
Asana offers List, Board, Timeline (Gantt), and Calendar views for projects. The flexibility to switch between views helps different team members work in their preferred style. Timeline view is particularly praised for visualizing dependencies and project schedules.
Robust automation with Rules and Forms
Asana's automation capabilities are consistently praised. Rules can automate task assignments, status changes, and notifications. Forms help standardize work requests. The automation, while capped on lower tiers, is powerful when available.
Task dependencies for proper project planning
Unlike simpler tools like Trello, Asana supports task dependencies showing which tasks block others. This enables proper project planning with critical path visibility. Teams doing sequential work benefit significantly from this feature.
200+ integrations with popular work tools
Asana integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Zoom, Salesforce, and 200+ other tools. The integration ecosystem helps teams centralize work without switching contexts. API access enables custom integrations.
Active community and extensive documentation
Asana's community forum is active with user-to-user support. The Asana Academy offers free training courses. Documentation is comprehensive. While priority support requires Enterprise, self-service resources are strong.
Users: Up to 10 users (reduced from 15)
Storage: 100MB per file
Limitations: 10 user cap (was 15), No dependencies view, No custom fields, No milestones, No admin controls
Users: Minimum 2 seats required
Storage: Unlimited
Limitations: No Portfolios, No Goals, No Workload view, Limited reporting, Limited Asana Intelligence, No SSO
Users: Per user pricing
Storage: Unlimited
Limitations: No SSO/SAML, No SCIM user provisioning, No data export controls, No custom branding, Priority support extra
Users: Custom
Storage: Unlimited
Limitations: Must contact sales, No public pricing transparency, Annual contracts
Mid-size teams with complex projects
Asana excels at managing projects with dependencies, multiple workstreams, and cross-team visibility. Timeline view, Portfolios, and Goals help leaders track progress. Worth the price for teams of 20+ managing complex work.
Organizations already using Asana
If your team has invested in learning Asana and built workflows, the switching cost may not be worth it. Asana's core functionality is solid. Focus on optimizing usage rather than migrating to save small amounts.
Marketing teams
Excellent for campaign management, content calendars, and cross-functional projects. Marketing teams love timeline views and workload balancing features.
Project managers
Strong for PMO work: portfolios, goals, workload management, and reporting. PMs get visibility across teams and projects with dashboards.
Teams relying heavily on automation
Starter's 250 automation/month cap is limiting - 5 people with a few rules hit it quickly. Advanced at $24.99/user provides 25,000/month but more than doubles cost. Evaluate if ClickUp or Monday.com offer better automation value.
Agencies needing time tracking
No native time tracking on Starter. Must integrate third-party tools (additional cost) or upgrade to Advanced for basic tracking. Agencies billing hourly may prefer tools with built-in time tracking like Toggl or Harvest integrations.
Teams wanting simple task management
Asana's power comes with complexity. G2 cites 262 mentions of learning difficulty. If you need simple Kanban without dependencies and reporting, Trello or Notion are simpler. Asana is overkill for basic needs.
Engineering teams
Works for task tracking but lacks sprint planning, story points, and Git integration. Dev teams often prefer Jira or Linear for software-specific workflows.
Solo freelancers and solopreneurs
The 2-seat minimum on paid plans means solo users must pay for an unused seat ($264/year minimum). The free plan's 10-user limit is fine for solo use, but lacks Timeline view and automation. Consider Trello, Todoist, or ClickUp with better solo pricing.
Small teams needing SSO for security
SSO/SAML is only available on Enterprise with custom (expensive) pricing. Teams of 10-50 needing SSO for compliance have no affordable option. This one requirement forces enterprise-level costs regardless of team size.
Common buyer's remorse scenarios reported by users.
Freelancers wanting Timeline view or Forms discover the 2-seat minimum forces them to pay $264/year instead of $132/year. They're paying for a seat nobody uses just to access basic features. Many switch to ClickUp or Trello after this realization.
Teams excited about Starter's automation discover the 250/month cap quickly. With 5 people and rules for task assignment, status updates, and notifications, the cap hits mid-month. Choice: disable automations or jump to $24.99/user Advanced - more than doubling cost.
Growing teams (20-50 people) needing SSO for security compliance discover it requires Enterprise. With no published pricing and custom quotes, they find costs far exceed Starter/Advanced expectations. Some pay anyway; others switch to tools with SSO at lower tiers.
Teams went through Asana's steep learning curve (G2 cites 262 mentions) only to realize their workflows didn't need dependencies, portfolios, or advanced reporting. Simpler tools like Trello would have worked. Switching means abandoning the learning investment.
Scenarios where this product tends to fail users.
Starter plan's automation cap limits workflow efficiency. Once exceeded, automations stop working until next month or you upgrade to Advanced at $24.99/user - a 127% price increase per user. Common with 5+ person teams using multiple rules.
When IT or compliance requires SAML SSO, Asana forces Enterprise tier with undisclosed pricing. Teams on Starter/Advanced have no path to SSO without enterprise-level costs, regardless of actual team size.
Each new hire requires significant onboarding time. G2 cites 262 mentions of learning difficulty. Without structured training, new users take weeks to become productive. This compounds as teams grow and rotate members.
Agencies discover no native time tracking on Starter. Third-party integrations add $5-15/user/month on top of Asana. The workaround adds friction and cost that competitors include natively.
When work truly requires two people equally responsible, Asana's single-assignee model breaks down. Creating duplicate tasks or subtask workarounds adds overhead and risks things falling through cracks.
Notion
Teams wanting combined docs + tasks + wiki switch to Notion for its flexibility. Better for teams needing knowledge management alongside project tracking.
Trello
Teams overwhelmed by Asana's complexity switch to Trello for simplicity. Good for basic Kanban needs without the learning curve, though lacks Asana's power features.
ClickUp
Teams switch for more features at lower price. Gain: docs, whiteboards, time tracking included. Trade-off: cluttered UI, performance issues.
Linear
Engineering teams switch for developer-focused experience. Gain: keyboard shortcuts, Git integration, fast UI. Trade-off: less suited for non-technical teams.
Monday.com
Teams switch for more visual interface and automation. Gain: better dashboards, more view options, easier automations. Trade-off: can feel overwhelming, expensive at scale.
