It is a cloud-based business and project management platform developed by Asana, Inc. The company was founded in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz, one of Facebook's co-founders, and software engineer Justin Rosenstein, and launched the product by November 2011. The founders observed during their time at Facebook that teams were wasting time on “work about work” (meetings, email traffic, etc.), and developed a tool that would enable all teams to coordinate their work better. The Asana team advocates that all teams of every size (from 1 to 100,000+ people) and with different goals should collaborate on tasks, projects, and objectives using the same tool, uniting teams at the “true source” to show who is working on what and where in a single format.

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Technical and Functional Features

Asana is offered in a SaaS (Software as a Service) model, running via web browser and supported by iOS/Android applications. It provides real-time synchronization among users; its internal infrastructure is hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers, offering high availability and SOC2 compliance. The company does not offer an on-premises version.

Core Features

• Task and subtask creation
• Adding due dates, assignees, descriptions
• List, board (Kanban), calendar, and timeline views
• Automation rules
• Custom fields
• File attachments and comments
• Advanced reporting and filtering
• Project portfolio and goal tracking (in paid plans)

In Asana, tasks and subtasks can be defined; each task can be assigned under a project and may include due dates, assignees, and additional information (e.g., file attachments, comments). Projects can be tracked in various views: flexible layouts such as list view, board (Kanban) view, calendar view, and timeline (Gantt) view are offered. For instance, the timeline view visualizes the project's progress by defining task dependencies. Furthermore, tasks can be enriched with additional data tags through custom fields, which allows them to be filtered and reported based on criteria such as type, priority, or cost.

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Asana's data model, named “Work Graph®,” maintains team relationships across work, projects, and users in a flexible graph structure. With this model, teams can more intelligently map and scale interconnected tasks, projects, and goals. The platform offers extensive integration support (over 100 popular tools, e.g., Slack, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, etc.), facilitating data exchange with other software. Custom integrations and automations can be developed with its Developer API (which is GraphQL-based). Additional security/reusability features such as SAML-based single sign-on, advanced security controls, and management APIs are also provided for enterprise customers. Task history is maintained across all plans (paid and free), and team members can track updates even while on the go with mobile applications.

Use Cases and Scope

Asana acts as a “work management” tool in modern project management approaches. Its purpose is to consolidate teams' tasks and projects into a single central tool and organize communication within the work context. In Asana, projects are hierarchically structured into tasks; team members track their assigned tasks and projects within Asana. Planning can be done at the project level using timelines and boards, allowing project phases to be visualized and responsibilities defined.

Asana supports both traditional (Waterfall) and agile (Scrum/Kanban) methodologies. It is used by a wide variety of teams across different disciplines and industries to manage their projects and work. Its features for software development teams (e.g., backlog management, sprint planning, Kanban boards) are supportive of Agile methodologies. Asana facilitates rapid delivery cycles by enabling software teams to gather feedback and organize tasks on Kanban boards. However, beyond technical teams, Asana is also widely used in business areas such as marketing, product management, operations, and human resources. The platform can be adapted to different workflows, such as campaign tracking, new product launch planning, event management, or recruitment processes. As highlighted in Asana's blog materials, Agile methodologies are an approach used by all types of teams, not just in software projects, to increase flexibility. In guides published by Gartner, Asana has been cited as one of the tools used for a wide range of “Backlog management and Kanban” tasks such as feedback management, product development, or project delivery. Asana's customers include examples from many sectors, such as educational institutions, healthcare organizations, and marketing agencies, as well as technology companies; teams using the platform aim to increase collaboration by customizing their processes.

Areas

• Software Development
• Marketing and Campaign Management
• Product Development
• Human Resources
• Operations and Process Tracking

Thanks to its Kanban-style views, visualizing the task flow is easy. Different teams synchronize their projects and goals in this tool, enabling cross-team collaboration. Thus, all teams—engineering, marketing, design, etc.—can instantly see who is doing what and what has been completed. Asana helps managers grasp the overall picture by presenting project progress as summary reports with “Indicators” (Status updates) and “Portfolios”.

Differences Between Paid and Free Plans

Asana's free Personal (Flexible) plan offers basic features for individual users and small teams. In this plan, teams of up to 10 people can be created; it provides unlimited tasks, projects, and messages. Basic project views such as personal lists, board (Kanban), calendar, task assignments and due dates, and mobile application support are included in the free plan. Reporting and search capabilities in the free plan are limited to simple filters.

Paid Starter and Advanced plans include all features of the free plan and additionally contain advanced management tools. The user count limitation is removed in paid plans. For example, timeline (Gantt) view, custom fields, forms, project dashboards, and advanced search/reporting features are available only in paid plans. Furthermore, business automation rules (e.g., automatic task assignment, notification triggers) and project templates are available in paid packages. The Advanced plan adds extended enterprise functionality such as portfolio management (tracking multiple projects at a high level), workload balancing, and Goals management. The enterprise-level Enterprise plan offers features like advanced security (SAML SSO, policy enforcement) and priority support; its pricing is determined by contacting the company. According to Asana's pricing, the Starter plan (with annual billing) starts at approximately 10.99 USD per person per month, and the Advanced plan at 24.99 USD. In summary, while the free plan limits team size and customization, paid plans include advanced functionalities to meet corporate needs with comprehensive project tracking, reporting, and management capabilities.

Market Position and Main Competitors

Asana is one of the leading players in the global work management and project management market. According to the company's own statement, it is used by “over 100,000 paid organizations” and millions of teams worldwide. Analyst reports also position Asana as a significant solution provider. In Gartner’s 2024 Magic Quadrant for Collaborative Work Management (CWM) report, Asana was positioned as a “Leader”. This report categorizes CWM software based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute.

Position

• 100,000+ paid enterprise customers
• Identified as a leader in CWM (Collaborative Work Management) in the Gartner 2024 report

The market in which Asana competes includes numerous platforms such as Atlassian Jira and Trello, Microsoft Planner/Teams, Smartsheet, monday.com, Wrike, Airtable, and ClickUp. On user review platforms like Gartner Peer Insights, Smartsheet, Atlassian Jira, Atlassian Trello, Airtable, and monday.com are frequently listed as top-rated products in the same category as Asana. For instance, in Gartner evaluations, Smartsheet, Jira, Airtable, and monday.com have been cited among the recommended tools alongside Asana.