The best alternative to Asana

The reporting is terrible. “Whats open, whats closed, whats due” sounds good for a 3-man band, terrible for 6 distributed teams and departments. SLOW – the web app spins up every time and makes me want to die. No caching. No hierarchy. Projects have their own little areas. No parent/children. Gantt? Forget about it. It lacks a “today” type swimlane on a global scale, and dashboards must be created for all projects. It seems great for SIMPLE needs and small shops, bad for big teams.^[1]

The people who run the company dictate that I must use the product exactly how they think I should – no matter how inconvenient it is for me and the thousands of other users who complain about the same things. Their iron-fisted arrogance went too far. Every time I launch the desktop app, it takes up my entire screen, which is irritating. There’s no way to automatically assign all new tasks to yourself. The notifications pile up in the left column vertically. That covers up the left sidebar, precisely when I need to see and navigate the sidebar. I’m sick of the company’s smugness and disregard for their users.^[2]

This can be frustrating because you are only able to see conflicting requirements in the Timeline view. Right now it’s a mess, and I’m sure that has more to do with us than the Asana. We’re 80 people, we’re on the way to be 200, and I’m worried about how much crazier it will get.^[3]

Comments on tasks are not easily searchable. I’ve had a hard time going back in time to find comments with important information. The chat function is clunky. It is not as functional or searchable as other tools.^[4]

Unfortunately, its complexity and limited reported features hinder its use in more demanding environments.^[5]

Integration with Slack was not smooth, faced multiple challenges which had a bad impact on the initial experience. Automation tasks are limited to a small number for the starter pack. It should be increased. Reporting and Analytics have some scope for improvement in terms of flexibility and customization.^[6]

Can be overwhelming for new users; Lacks to-do list prioritization feature; Potentially costly for large teams; Limited customization for project views and workflows.^[7]

What I liked least about the Asana was the occasional clutter when managing complex projects, as too many tasks and subtasks could make it overwhelming. Additionally, some features felt limited unless you upgraded to the premium version.^[8]

The whole app left me indifferent or even slightly repulsed. Sounds really harsh when I write it, but it’s the truth.^[9]

Very bad UI and super non-intuitive.^[10]

It’s a scam. It’s total garbage. You can’t cancel and you will keep getting charged without your authorization. And customer service will not help you!^[11]

I hated working with it daily.^[12]

The notifications sometimes (not always) take a long time to arrive. I wish it wouldn’t log me out so often because it’s annoying. I am a bit hesitant to recommend this for larger teams.^[13]

Asana was a bad fit. There isn’t a collaborator function, nor can you mix and match licenses. Some of what we needed is Enterprise functionality, but you can’t mix enterprise with premium, and I wasn’t willing to license everyone into an enterprise plan. Aside from that, the Asana was missing some important features – it doesn’t play well with the MS Suite, it doesn’t have any change control or tracking, and the suite of reporting is limited.^[14]

It lacks some advanced features like budgeting and detailed reports. It is a nightmare to deploy to an enterprise environment and administer. Their support is non-existent even for work-stoppage issues.^[15]

Features that were free disappeared and replaced by a Business-tier only feature. Premium users may feel cheated because they now have to upgrade to get the feature. Also, it is now especially hard to sign up for the free version.^[16]

The level of support offered by the Asana is so bad it might as well not exist at all. I have been waiting for support for a week, with multiple attempts made to get someone involved. The worst part is this need for support is not predicated on my own ignorance but is based on the Asana breaking one of the key features I needed.^[17]

Asana is not for everyone.^[18]

Running a “best practice” business operation is done without Asana. Asana highly polices, curates, and censors its community.^[19]

As your Asana grows your spent paying your staff attempting to managing the Task Templates proportionally increases. Task Template that adds Jen in support? Oh! Jen quit and Becca who already works for you is taking that over? Yes, you must go through every single project and edit each Task Template that mentions Jen and change it to Becca. This is a nightmare.^[20]

Going through the reviews afterwards may be more tedious as you have to open all subtasks.^[21]

I had critical billing issues and looked for someone to talk to since 2 weeks with no one considering me. The Help Center page in completely useless. The chatbot is… well, not helpful^[22]

Asana feels like it was designed by people who have never actually managed a project in their lives. The interface is confusing, the features are half-baked, and the whole thing feels like a shiny toy that doesn’t work in the real world.^[23]