Recently I talked about my most preferred Productivity Tools of 2021 where I briefly mentioned Asana’s key features and why I love using it.
After receiving a couple of queries about Asana, I thought of putting together a detailed review here.
This article is an extensive review of Asana, so you have a better idea about its features, pros, and cons to help you get started.
What is Asana?
Asana, a cloud-based project management tool, gives users a virtual workspace to collaborate on tasks. It allows you to make tasks as part of a larger project.
You can assign them to specific team members and set a deadline for them. Also, you can receive notifications about approaching deadlines and the status of your assignment.
Teams can work together on tasks by leaving comments for quick communication. You can also add files for document sharing.
Asana is excellent for short and long-term projects using the option to archive projects. You can do that just in case you need them in the future.
You can maximize your time and productivity by using Asana to organize your projects and tasks.
How Does Asana Work?
Individuals and teams can use Asana to break down extensive work into digestible chunks. Workspace is a collaborative work area where users may work on projects and activities together.
These are the main components of your Asana tool. You can build various workspaces for different teams and clients.
Next are workspaces, which is the area where your sequence of tasks is. These are the most essential features in Asana, wherein we can make them public or private.
In the projects area, you can color-code our workspaces. You can also use other criteria such as importance, assigned personnel, and labels or tags.
You may create tasks, fill them with different information and manage your workload.
Asana Pricing: What Are My Options?
Asana has options for almost any circumstance, and the price depends on the plan you want to get.
Asana’s price ranges from free if you only need the essential functions to varied pricing. The latter works for enterprises with specific requirements.
One remarkable thing is that we can save money by purchasing annually rather than monthly.
If we pay annually, upgraded plans will only cost:
- $10.99/month for premium plans
- $24.99/month for business plans
Here are the options and how much each plan will cost every month:
Basic Plan – Free
This plan is excellent if we want to test it out or work on a tight budget. Through the basic plan, you can:
- Create unlimited projects and tasks
- Get unlimited file storage and messages.
- View and integrate calendars
However, with this plan, you can only collaborate with a maximum of 15 users. But other than that, you can access Asana as much as you can get.
Most project managers would appreciate the option to establish due dates and divide tasks to employees. Managers enjoy task assignment since it assists them with supervising and team management.
Additionally, Asana’s marketing materials are divided by use-case on their website.
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Premium Plan – $13.49 per Person – Monthly
Asana’s Premium plan removes the task restriction. It also allows users to invite an unlimited number of guests to watch the board without interacting.
It also comes with an admin console that allows you to check what your team members are up to. Also, you can restrict their capabilities through this option.
You can also get access to the new dashboard and timeline views. This allows you more control over how activities are proceeding.
Furthermore, the timeline allows you to plan tasks and project dues.
Other than that, the dashboard provides even more information in one look. This is excellent for people who are managing multiple projects or tasks.
Thus, these upgrades became the most compelling reason to purchase the premium plan.
Business Plan – $30.49 per Person – Monthly
The Business plan aims to improve project portfolio management (PPM) and resource management tools to executives and managers.
The Business plan is for larger businesses or organizations that require the Portfolios tool to keep track of everything.
Additionally, proofing and forms are also essential elements for larger businesses. Proofing or annotations work on PDF, JPG, PNG, BMP, and GIF images to create subtasks on the spot.
Also, the Workload function on the Business plan complements well with Portfolios. You can also achieve locking custom fields using this plan.
Enterprise Plan – Price Depends on the Service
Asana’s Enterprise plan does not have a public price because it targets large businesses. It also requires a call to the company’s sales team.
Large-scale features such as Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) for handling single sign-on can be found here. This allows the IT department to control who has access to the company’s Asana membership.
You can also disable native connections. This is to prevent unauthorized software from opening within your Asana projects.
Here are some other distinct features of the Enterprise plan:
- Priority Support
- Data Transfer and Deletion
- Custom Branding
- User provisioning and de-provisioning
Additional Features
Asana’s tags option makes tasks easier to find and pair with the advanced search feature. You won’t worry about searching for the right tasks.
Interactive checkboxes allow you to mark tasks as you finish them. You can simply unmark if another user or you made a mistake.
You can add specific details to a job vital to your team with custom fields and can categorize the task’s priority as low, medium, or high.
Likewise, you can also add tasks statuses such as pending, in progress or waiting for approval. Additionally, a great feature of Asana is to utilize dependencies between projects.
Let’s say I have two tasks, A and B, and task B can only begin after job A is done. I can use dependence to indicate the relationship between them.
A Gantt chart, such as the one provided by Asana’s Timeline, helps visualize these dependencies.
All users can view the tasks displayed in a Gantt chart manner here. There are lines between tasks that represent dependencies that I can adjust at any time.
The Gantt charts are handy for seeing how delays or an absence of a user affects the due dates. Lastly, Asana also allows users to divide tasks into sections.
Pros and Cons of Using Asana
Remember that what works for others may not be the best for you. So, take time to understand how the software can help.
Here are the pros and cons of using Asana to make this decision easier for you.
Pros
- Best Free Plan: Out of all the project management software I reviewed, Asana offers the best free plan you can get. In reality, most alternative PM software’s free plans are too limited for actual business use.
- Multi-Functional: Users can access and manage projects and tasks in a variety of ways with Asana. Some project management programs out there only provide one or two functions.
- Best Automation: Asana makes streamlining the things you regularly conduct a breeze. Automation saves users time and increases productivity by removing manual steps.
- Great Team Communication: Asana includes outstanding features for team collaboration. It allows users to set priorities and give tasks to other members.
- Teams can also use calendars to plan by overseeing each user’s schedule. Therefore, we can stay informed about any new modifications or developments.
Asana may also be used to keep track of all project to-do lists and discussions.
Cons
- Limited Mobile Phone Application Usage: Every Asana plan includes a free iOS and Android mobile app. However, it somehow works better on a laptop or a computer screen since they’re bigger.
- One Task per User Only: You cannot assign more than one user in tasks using Asana. To include additional users in on the task, you can use subtasks or add a collaborator for each task.
Wrapping up!
Asana is one of my top picks for a cloud-based project management tool.
It’s a great task management tool with a lot more capabilities than others. You can try the basic plan, to begin with, and gradually move forward with a paid plan if your project requires so.
I understand why some people might find Asana intimidating to use. However, when used smartly, it makes project management a breeze.
Try Asana Premium for free here and let me know how you find it!
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