A comparison · checked October 25, 2026
Looking for an Asana alternative? Here is an honest comparison
The best Asana alternative depends on why you are leaving. If it is price, Asana's Starter plan is listed at $10.99 per user a month billed annually and Advanced at $24.99, with portfolios, goals and native time tracking on Advanced [1]. If it is AI, paid plans include 5 AI requests per user a month, capped at 50 per account below Enterprise [1]. If it is shared ownership, Asana allows one assignee per task by design [5]. This page compares Kavanah, Asana, ClickUp and monday work management on what their own pages said today, says exactly what each one brings across from Asana and what it leaves behind, and names the cases where you should stay on Asana.
#Why it is different
Why teams look for an Asana alternative
Most of it is the price of the features a growing team ends up needing. Asana's free Personal plan is for 2 users [1]. Starter, at $10.99 per user a month billed annually or $13.49 monthly, adds timeline and Gantt views, unlimited automations, forms and custom fields [1]. Portfolios, goals, approvals and time tracking that compares estimated with actual time are on Advanced, at $24.99 billed annually or $30.49 monthly; SAML authentication and SCIM provisioning are on Enterprise; and Timesheets & Budgets is a separate add-on [1]. A 10-person team that needs portfolios and time tracking is pricing Advanced, which is about $250 a month billed annually, before any add-on.
AI is metered on top, in two separate currencies. Every paid plan includes AI Teammates and Asana Dash, with 5 requests per user a month, up to 50 per account on Starter and Advanced and up to 250 on Enterprise; extra requests come in prepaid packs at $0.50 each [1]. AI Studio, the no-code automation builder, draws on a separate allowance of 50K, 75K or 200K credits per billing account a month by plan [1]. So a 30-person team on Advanced shares 50 AI Teammate requests a month, not 150. The other reason that comes up again and again is ownership: a task in Asana has exactly one assignee, and Asana recommends splitting shared work into subtasks or adding people as followers [5].
Be fair to Asana, though, because the reasons to stay are real. It ships more than 30 prebuilt AI Teammates for marketing, ops and IT, runs AI on the permissions a user already has, and says its AI partners do not train on customer data [2]. One task can live in up to 20 projects with its updates synced everywhere [4]. Starter includes unlimited free guests and 100+ free integrations [1], and Asana says it works with independent third-party auditors on SOC 2 [1]. Even ClickUp's comparison page concedes Asana may fit teams that want a focused setup with less to configure [7]. Leaving is a good decision when you pay Advanced prices for a few features. It is a bad one when your process runs on multi-homed tasks, portfolios and a set of AI Teammates. The checklist below is how to tell which.
#What to require
What to check in any Asana alternative before you move
Use this list on every tool you shortlist, including ours. The first three are where most migrations go wrong, because they are only discovered after the import.
01
An importer that says what it drops
Every Asana importer loses something; the good ones say what. ClickUp, for example, says its importer brings projects, tasks, people, sections, completed tasks and attachments, but not freestanding tasks, nested subtasks or tasks shared between projects, and that automation rules and recurring tasks must be set up again [7]. Ask for that list in writing, then import one real project and compare it with the original.
02
What happens to multi-homed tasks
An Asana task can sit in up to 20 projects at once [4]. Most tools give a task one home, so an importer either skips it, as ClickUp says it does for tasks shared between projects [7], or creates a copy per project. Count how many of your tasks live in more than one project before you choose.
03
Sections, custom fields and rules
Sections usually become columns or groups, but custom fields and automation rules rarely survive an import [7]. Write down the fields your reports filter on and the rules that route your work, and plan to rebuild them by hand.
04
Shared ownership, if you want it
Asana holds to one assignee per task [5]. If your team pairs on work, check that the new tool allows several assignees and that each of them sees the task in their own list, not just the first name.
05
AI that is priced and governed in the open
Asana meters AI in per-account requests and AI Studio credits [1]; ClickUp and monday.com pool AI credits by plan [6][8]. Ask any vendor what one unit of AI buys, what happens when the pool runs out, what its agents may touch, which actions wait for a person, and how you undo one.
06
Time tracking without an add-on
On Asana, time tracking is through integrations on Personal and Starter, native on Advanced, and timesheets are an add-on [1]. monday work management includes time tracking from Pro [8]. If you bill or plan by the hour, check the plan it is really on.
07
The price at your real team size
Per-user prices hide breakpoints. Asana's free plan is for 2 users [1], monday work management's plans start at 3 seats and its free plan is 2 seats and 3 boards [8], and ClickUp's free plan caps storage at 60MB [6]. Price the team you will have in a year, plus any AI top-up, before you compare.
08
A way back out
Asana exports projects as CSV or JSON [4], and a complete JSON backup of a whole organization is an Enterprise compliance add-on [1]. Whatever you move to should export your work in a format another tool can read, without a sales call.
#How Kavanah does it
How Kavanah covers what you use Asana for
Kavanah is an agentic project management platform: projects, tasks and planning, with AI employees that do coordination work inside limits a person sets. Each item below describes the product as it ships today, including where it falls short of Asana.
A direct Asana importer
In Settings, Integrations, a workspace admin connects Asana or pastes a Personal Access Token, which is used for that request and not stored, then picks the projects to bring over. Each becomes a new Kavanah project with its tasks' names, descriptions, completed state, assignees matched by email or name, due dates, and subtasks up to three levels deep. Up to 25 projects per run and 2,000 tasks per run; re-run to continue, and projects already imported are skipped. Sections, custom fields, tags, comments, attachments and dependencies are not imported, and a task that lives in two imported projects is created in both.
CSV import that keeps your sections
Kavanah reads Asana's CSV columns: Name, Notes, Section/Column, Completed At, Assignee, Due Date and Tags. Imported into a new project, each Asana section becomes a board column. Limits: 1,000 rows per import, only the first tag is kept, and parent-task, dependency and custom-field columns are not read.
An Asana connector for the overlap
While both tools run, the agent can list your Asana workspaces and tasks and create tasks in Asana. Writes into Asana wait for your approval by default and are removed entirely in safe mode. A background sync keeps an index of your own assigned Asana tasks; it does not create Kavanah tasks.
Several assignees on one task
A task can be assigned to more than one person, and it appears in each assignee's own work list, so paired work does not need a parent task and a subtask per person.
Boards, timeline and Gantt
Custom statuses per project, first-class sub-tasks, custom fields, a timeline view, and a Gantt chart with finish-to-start dependencies and milestones. Recurring tasks run from a rule, and a task can carry an approval request.
Portfolio, capacity and planning
A portfolio view with programs, strategic objectives linked to projects, budgets and resources, plus team capacity in hours per week. The sprint planner compares each person's estimates with the hours they actually logged and says what fits at the median and at the 90th percentile.
Intake pages and automations
Publish a request page, let people inside or outside the company submit work, and convert each request into a task. Automations run actions on triggers, the job Asana's rules do.
Time tracking and a client portal on every plan
Native time tracking is included on every plan, not an add-on. Clients you invite through the client portal can follow and collaborate on their projects without being charged as a seat.
AI employees with controls
AI employees with a role, scoped tools and access only to the projects you choose; once you turn it on, a task assigned to one is worked by it. Safe mode removes risky actions, action policies make chosen categories wait for approval, every action lands in a ledger, and actions can be undone. Anything that runs on its own or spends AI credits is off until you turn it on.
Learn moreExport in Asana's own format
Export any project as CSV in a standard, Jira or Asana column layout, or as JSON, from the board or the API, on every plan. Leaving Kavanah is as easy as arriving.
Learn moreIdentity and security, stated plainly
SAML 2.0 and OIDC single sign-on and SCIM on the Enterprise plan, TOTP and passkey sign-in, per-project and per-task access control, and an audit log. The SOC 2 Type II observation period is underway; there is no report yet.
Learn morePay for the AI you use, not for seats
Pay as you go has no subscription and no seat fee: seats and projects are unlimited and you buy AI credits in packs from $10 per 1,000, about a cent a credit. Prefer a seat plan? Basic is $3 a seat a month ($2 billed yearly) with 100 credits per seat shared by the workspace, and Pro is $6 ($4 yearly) with 250. The free Starter plan covers up to 5 members and 10 projects.
Learn more#In practice
Migrating from Asana to Kavanah, step by step
One team lead and a workspace admin
1. Take stock before you move
- List the projects that are still active, and archive in Asana the ones that are not.
- Note which tasks are multi-homed in more than one project, which custom fields your reports filter on, and which rules route your work. None of these come across automatically.
- Decide, per project, whether sections matter. If they do, use the CSV route in step 3 for that project; the direct importer does not keep them.
- Invite your team to Kavanah first, using the same email addresses they use in Asana, so assignees match on import.
Workspace admin
2. Import with the direct importer
- In Settings, Integrations, open the Asana card and connect your account, or paste a Personal Access Token.
- Pick the Asana workspace, then up to 25 projects. Choose whether to include completed tasks.
- Start the import and read the report: tasks and subtasks created per project, and the assignee names that matched no member. Invite those people, then reassign.
- If the report says a project was skipped at the task limit, run the import again; projects already imported are skipped, so nothing is duplicated.
Project owner and workspace admin
3. Or import a CSV when sections matter
- In Asana, export the project as CSV [4].
- Split the file so no import is over 1,000 rows.
- Send the CSV to the task import API with a project name, from a script or the kvn command line, or attach a small file in chat and ask the agent to import it. Each Asana section becomes its own board column.
- Keep the export, and Asana itself, as your archive: comments, attachments and history stay there.
Team lead
4. Rebuild what an import does not carry
- Recreate the custom fields your reports need, and set the dependencies that matter on the Gantt chart.
- Rebuild Asana rules as Kavanah automations, and forms as request intake pages.
- Turn shared work back into one task with several assignees, instead of a parent task and a subtask per person.
- Set up recurring tasks again, then run one planning cycle in Kavanah before you cancel Asana seats.
#Compared
Kavanah, Asana, ClickUp and monday work management compared
Each competitor cell describes only what that vendor's own public page said when we checked on October 25, 2026: Asana's pricing, AI, AI Studio and projects pages and its article on one assignee [1][2][3][4][5], ClickUp's pricing page and its comparison with Asana [6][7], and monday.com's pricing page and its Asana import page [8][9]. ClickUp's pricing page showed two different price sets that day; both are given. "Not described" means the page did not say, not that the product lacks it. Kavanah cells describe the product as it ships.
| Criterion | Kavanah | Asana | ClickUp | monday work management |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price | Pay as you go: no seat fee, credits from $10 per 1,000; or Basic $3 per seat a month, $2 billed yearly | Starter $10.99 per user a month billed annually, $13.49 monthly [1] | Unlimited $7 per user a month billed yearly, or Core $9; both shown on the same page [6] | Basic $9 per seat a month billed annually, from 3 seats [8] |
| Free option | Starter: up to 5 members and 10 projects, 2 GB | Personal: 2 users, unlimited tasks and projects [1] | Free Forever: unlimited members, 60MB storage [6] | Free: up to 2 seats and 3 boards [8] |
| Bringing work over from Asana | Direct importer: names, descriptions, completion, assignees, due dates, subtasks 3 levels; no sections, custom fields, comments or attachments. CSV import keeps sections as columns | Exports projects as CSV or JSON [4] | Importer brings projects, tasks, people, sections, completed tasks and attachments; not nested subtasks or tasks shared between projects [7] | Imports Asana projects; fields not described [9] |
| Running beside Asana | Agent lists and creates Asana tasks; writes need approval by default | Not applicable | Not described | Two-way real-time sync during the move [9] |
| Assignees per task | Several | One, by design [5] | Not described | Not described |
| Timeline and Gantt | Timeline view and Gantt with dependencies and milestones on every plan | Timeline and Gantt from Starter [1] | Gantt from the first paid plan; trial on Free [6] | Timeline and Gantt from Standard [8] |
| Portfolios and goals | Portfolio with programs, objectives linked to projects, budgets and resources | Unlimited portfolios and Goals on Advanced [1] | Goals from the first paid plan [6] | Not described |
| Native time tracking | Every plan | Advanced; via integrations below that; Timesheets & Budgets add-on [1] | From the first paid plan [6] | From Pro [8] |
| AI included and how it is metered | Credits, about a cent each: 100 or 250 per seat a month pooled on seat plans, or bought in packs | 5 AI requests per user a month, up to 50 per account on Starter and Advanced; separate AI Studio credits [1] | Pooled AI credits on every plan in one price set; Brain AI add-on in the other [6] | 1,000 to 3,000 AI credits a month by plan [8] |
| AI agents and their controls | AI employees with scoped tools; safe mode, approval policies, action ledger and undo | 30+ prebuilt AI Teammates; AI runs on the user's existing permissions; usage dashboard and spend limits [2] | Not described | Not described |
| Automations | Trigger-based automations and request intake pages | Unlimited automations from Starter; AI Studio for AI workflows [1][3] | 100 actions a month on Free, more by plan [6] | 250 automation actions a month on Standard, 25,000 on Pro [8] |
| SSO and SCIM | SAML 2.0 / OIDC SSO and SCIM on Enterprise | SAML authentication and SCIM on Enterprise [1] | SAML SSO and SCIM on Enterprise [6] | Not described |
| Security attestations named | SOC 2 Type II observation period underway; no report yet | Independent third-party auditors; SOC 2 [1] | SOC 2 and ISO 27001 [6] | ISO/IEC 27001 and 27018 [8] |
#Questions
Questions buyers ask
- What is the best Asana alternative?
- It depends on why you are leaving. ClickUp is the usual pick for teams that want docs, goals and time tracking in one tool at a lower entry price. monday work management suits teams that want visual boards and low-code automation. Kavanah fits teams that want AI employees doing coordination work under real controls, and want to pay for the AI they use rather than for seats. If your process depends on multi-homed tasks, portfolios and Asana's AI Teammates, staying on Asana may be the better call.
- What is the cheapest Asana alternative?
- For a team whose AI use is light, Kavanah's Pay as you go plan has no subscription and no seat fee at all: after a first credit pack, seats and projects are unlimited and you buy AI credits in packs from $10 per 1,000. On a seat plan, Kavanah Basic is $3 a seat a month, or $2 billed yearly, against Asana Starter's $10.99 per user a month billed annually. ClickUp's and monday.com's entry plans sit between the two.
- Is there a free Asana alternative?
- Yes, several, each with a different limit. Asana's own Personal plan is free for 2 users. ClickUp's Free Forever plan allows unlimited members with 60MB of storage, monday.com's free plan allows 2 seats and 3 boards, and Kavanah's free Starter plan covers up to 5 members and 10 projects with 2 GB of storage.
- Can I import my Asana projects into Kavanah?
- Yes. A workspace admin connects Asana in Settings, Integrations, or pastes a Personal Access Token, and picks up to 25 projects per run. Tasks arrive with their names, descriptions, completed state, assignees matched by email or name, due dates and subtasks up to three levels deep, up to 2,000 tasks per run. Sections, custom fields, tags, comments, attachments and dependencies are not imported. If sections matter, import an Asana CSV export instead, which turns each section into a board column.
- Does Kavanah sync with Asana both ways?
- Not as an automatic task-for-task sync. The importer is one-shot. The Asana connector lets Kavanah's agent list your Asana workspaces and tasks and create tasks in Asana, with each write waiting for your approval by default, and a background sync indexes your own assigned Asana tasks without creating Kavanah tasks. monday.com advertises a two-way real-time sync during a move, if that is what you need.
- Can a Kavanah task have more than one assignee?
- Yes. A Kavanah task can be assigned to several people, and it shows up in each of their work lists. Asana deliberately allows one assignee per task and recommends subtasks or followers for shared work, so this is one of the more common reasons teams compare the two.
- How does Kavanah's AI compare with Asana AI?
- Asana includes 5 AI Teammate and Dash requests per user a month, capped at 50 per account on Starter and Advanced, plus a separate pool of AI Studio credits, and offers more than 30 prebuilt AI Teammates. Kavanah meters all AI in one currency, credits at about a cent each, with no per-account request cap. Its AI employees act only inside the projects and tools you give them, risky actions can be made to wait for approval, every action is recorded, and actions can be undone.
- When should a team stay on Asana?
- When the process lives in what Asana does well: tasks multi-homed across many projects, portfolios and goals your leadership reviews every week, a set of AI Teammates you already rely on, or many outside guests who collaborate for free. ClickUp's own comparison page concedes Asana may fit teams that want a focused setup with less to configure. In those cases, the cost of rebuilding is likely to exceed what you save.
#Go deeper
One question at a time
- What Asana Really Costs at 5, 12 and 31 People: Seat Steps, Plans and AIAsana's per-user price is only half the bill. Seats are sold in steps, the features growing teams need sit on Advanced, and AI requests are capped per account. Here is the real monthly cost at three team sizes.
- Asana AI Requests and AI Studio Credits, ExplainedAsana meters AI in two currencies: requests for AI Teammates and Dash, and credits for AI Studio. Here is what each one buys, where the caps are, what an overage costs, and how to compare it with tools that price AI differently.
- Moving Off Asana: What an Export or Importer Carries, and What You LoseEvery Asana migration loses something: sections, custom fields, rules, multi-homed tasks, comments. Here is what Asana's exports offer, what the main importers say they drop, and how to plan around the gaps.
- When You Should Not Leave AsanaAsana is expensive at the plans growing teams need, but for some teams it is still the right tool. Here are the situations where staying beats switching, from a vendor that would rather you switched.
Related reading
- What Asana really costs at 5, 12 and 31 peopleSeat steps, the Starter and Advanced split, and the per-account AI cap, priced out.
- Asana AI requests and AI Studio credits, explainedTwo AI currencies, where the caps are, and what an overage costs.
- Moving off Asana: what you loseWhat exports and importers carry, what they drop, and how to plan around it.
- When you should not leave AsanaThe situations where staying on Asana beats switching.
- Jira alternative: an honest comparisonThe same treatment for Jira: prices, what each tool imports, and when to stay.
Sources
- [1] Asana pricing: Personal, Starter, Advanced, Enterprise — Asana, 2026, updated
- [2] Asana AI & Agentic Work Management — Asana, 2026, updated
- [3] Asana AI Studio: build workflows with AI agents — Asana, 2026, updated
- [4] Explore Asana Projects Features & Capabilities — Asana, 2026, updated
- [5] Why one assignee? — Asana, 2026
- [6] ClickUp Pricing and Plans — ClickUp, 2026, updated
- [7] ClickUp vs. Asana comparison, pricing and features — ClickUp, 2026
- [8] monday.com pricing — monday.com, 2026, updated
- [9] monday.com: a great Asana alternative — monday.com, 2026, updated
Sources and the comparison were checked on October 25, 2026. Product details change; check each vendor's own pages before you decide.
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