Asana vs Trello

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Our analysts compared Asana vs Trello based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Project Management Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Asana Software Tool
Trello Software Tool

Product Basics

Asana is a cloud-based project management platform designed to help teams of all sizes manage and organize projects with customization, automation, AI and collaboration. Users can build custom workflows, templates and tasks, and visualize projects in multiple ways, including list, timeline, calendar, Kanban and Gantt views.

You can also build and trigger automation rules when tasks are moved or status or priority is changed. Stay aligned with goals, locate risks and hit project deadlines with reports and collaboration tools. Connect with other solutions using its open API and native integration with dozens of apps.

Our Research Process for Asana

Taking software at face value for a product page review is so passe. Luckily, with a little help from my company’s email address, I got a free trial of Asana’s Advanced plan for 30 days.

I set up a dummy project for content creation, complete with the stages and automations we currently use, so I’d have a more apples-to-apples comparison of a real-world project.

Additionally, I tested some “standout” features our researchers suggested and investigated the pros and cons users mentioned on review sites.

To learn the ropes, I visited the help center, watched demo videos and scoured Reddit for shortcuts. This webpage is the result of a week of dedicating all my working hours to living and breathing Asana.

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Trello is a cloud-based visual collaboration solution that can be used by organizations of any size to plan tasks and projects. It helps users define projects, requirements and workflows to ensure they are completed in a planned and sequential manner. It organizes projects into boards and provides a peek into ongoing projects and tasks.

It helps administrators delegate tasks, set deadlines and define workflows while supporting a range of project types. Specific team use cases include marketing, engineering, product management, support, design and sales. It is also useful for remote teams and startups.
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$10.99/User, Monthly, Freemium
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$5/User, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

Documentation
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Live Online
Videos
Webinars
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Videos
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Email
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Chat
FAQ
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
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Product Insights

  • Use Asana AI: Leverage AI in your project management strategy by using AI studio to draft workflows and create custom charts. Summarize your project and tasks using AI and use draft with AI to view next steps and actions. I drafted a project update by clicking on the Set Status tab and selecting “Draft update with AI.” After setting a status and date range, I also added an extra custom heading. The final product was comprehensive and easy to edit, which is great if you find staring at a blank page can be a stumbling block.
  • Create Tasks via Email: Make it easy to create tasks on the go by sending an email to your project email with all the details you need. I found the email associated with that project by clicking on the project dropdown and selecting import and then email. After that, I copied the email address and pasted it and added my email so I’d be the assignee, filled out the subject as the task name, added an additional description in the body and sent it. Like magic, the task showed up with all the details I wanted – 10/10, would recommend.
  • Set Up and Implement Custom Templates: Save time by creating your own custom cards and projects and converting them to templates or choosing from the built-in project templates. Click on the Customize button to add task templates and custom fields. I added a new article template with a relative start date, dependency and custom field for the editor and team.
  • Collaborate with External Users: Stay in sync with clients and suppliers by creating guest accounts and inviting them to access specific tasks and projects. I could invite users with a different email domain name and set access permissions like admin, editor, commentator or viewer in the invite.
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  • Visualize Project Workflows: Present projects visually using Kanban and Scrum layouts. Add list columns for team requirements and name them according to their workflow stages while keeping items organized and identifying bottlenecks. 
  • Hit Deadlines: Add due dates to cards and set reminders for everyone. Easily view due dates on cards, which turn red when past deadlines. 
  • Intuitive Interface: Move cards between columns with drag-and-drop capabilities or switch the order of columns. 
  • Centralized Collaboration: Facilitate communication within teams, add description boxes, attachments and comment threads to cards. Mention and add team members to cards to identify who’s responsible for each task. 
  • Track Details: Cards display relevant details about a task. Labels identify the card’s purpose, status or other specific information. Add a checklist to track items associated with a task and show or hide a card’s activity. 
  • Work With External Users: Invite guests to single or multiple boards to collaborate. Provide selective access without compromising boards that are for internal use only. 
  • Simplify Communication: Connects with email so users can comment on Trello cards and share attachments directly from their inbox. Each board is assigned a specific email address, which enables creating cards from email as well. 
  • Stay Updated: Change updates let users know when they are tagged, or a member is moved to another column. Set notifications for email, mobile, desktop and the app. 
  • Free Version: Create unlimited personal boards, cards and lists, along with one power-up per board for free. Include ten team boards, basic automation via integration with Butler and two-factor authentication. 
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  • Task Management: Create tasks with custom fields, deadlines, tags, subtasks, dependencies and descriptions during setup, adding tasks to the section you want when you create your first project or forwarding an email to [email protected]. Save time by converting your custom tasks into a template you can apply to new tasks and using AI to summarize tasks and draft subtasks. Switch between list, board, timeline, calendar and Gantt views to optimize visualization and drag-and-drop tasks between sections.
  • Project Planning and Scheduling: Kick your projects off with a plethora of templates ranging from product rollouts to hiring pipelines, or import your project from a spreadsheet. Convert tasks into milestones on the card and add details about why it’s a milestone. Add tasks to multiple projects and organize strategic initiatives by creating a portfolio where you can track the updates of all your projects.
  • Resource Management: Keep track of what’s on everyone’s plate by switching to the workload view. Drag and drop tasks to manage timelines and assignees and assign custom values like hours or points to tasks to accurately factor in employee effort.
  • Sprint Management: Hit the ground running by applying the sprint template to a new project. Add custom fields, use the timeline tab to map out sprint tasks and deadlines and set start and finish dates in the project view.
  • Collaboration Features: Add updates, questions and notes into the description. Comment on cards with mentions, files, lists, code blocks and even AI assists. Send messages directly to individuals or teams using the inbox. Keep your clients in the loop by creating guest accounts and sharing specific tasks and projects with them.
  • Reports and Insights: Tap into a bird’s eye view of your project by clicking on the dashboard tab where you can monitor overdue, complete and incomplete tasks and burnup charts and create custom charts with their AI tool. Visit the reporting tab to view trends, progress, resourcing and work health.
  • Custom Automations and Workflows: Build a workflow that’s a perfect fit for your project in the workflow tab by adding sections for each step in the process with custom transitions and rules when tasks are moved. Add custom automations and rules from scratch, use the options provided as a starting point or get a helping hand from the AI studio. Check out the automations we built in depth below.
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  • Boards: Create multiple boards for different projects, workflows or other needs. Keep all related information organized in a single location. 
  • Cards: Build processes, follow progress and manage all aspects of a project. Foster collaboration and organization within teams. 
  • Task Management: Represent tasks on each card and move them through the workflow. Set up and manage task dependencies by creating checklists and linking associated cards to one another. 
  • Templates: Create real-world boards from the inspiration section for teams. Use pre-built or custom templates to create boards, lists or cards. 
  • Power-Ups: Integrate it with apps like Slack, Zapier, Google Drive, MailChimp, Salesforce, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey and Zendesk to complete workflows. Choose from over 130 modules for file management, reporting, automation and developer tools.
  • Mobile Apps: Access it through iOS and Android devices, including smartphones, iPads, smart watches and Kindle fire tablets. 
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Product Ranking

#2

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#8

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Analyst Rating Summary

85
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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Asana
Trello
+ Add Product + Add Product
Customizations Dashboards And Reporting Mobile Capabilities Platform Features Project Planning And Scheduling Project Tracking Task Management Team Collaboration Time Tracking And Management 84 77 69 93 82 58 95 97 50 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

89%
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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 27379 reviews
Great User Sentiment 35053 reviews
89%
of users recommend this product

Asana has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 89% when considering 27379 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

89%
of users recommend this product

Trello has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 89% when considering 35053 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

4.8 (15)
4.9 (22)
4.4 (10490)
4.4 (12443)
n/a
4.5 (20471)
4.5 (13154)
n/a
4.3 (1084)
4.3 (54)
4.2 (2636)
4.2 (2063)

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

User Friendly: Reviewers appreciated that the system is easy to use and intuitive with a clean UI, even if you’re new to projects.
Overall Functionality: Workflows and automation, task management and collaboration are everything you’d look for in a project management system, according to users.
Customization: Users liked the customization options for unique team needs, projects and workflows.
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Functionality: Trello offers robust organizational tools that simplify task delegation and streamline workflows, as reported by nearly 88% of the users who mention the product’s functionality.
Easy to Use: The system is intuitive, user friendly and doesn’t require a steep learning curve to understand its features, as noted by approximately 82% of users who referred to its usability.
Collaborative: Approximately 79% of users who talked about collaboration noted that project collaborations are a breeze with Trello as it shares information with team members and clients in an organized manner while adding specific members to project cards.
Customizable: The system is highly customizable with numerous display choices and features to adapt to users’ requirements, as reported by nearly 74% of reviewers who referred to customization.
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>Cost: Users mentioned Asana’s paid plans were too expensive for smaller businesses making it difficult to upgrade from the limited free version.
Set-Up: Getting started can be overwhelming with so many customizations and task options. Users said you may need extra time to implement it effectively.
Advanced Features: Reviewers noted some features like AI, advanced project views, resource management and multiple task assignees require expensive plan upgrades.
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Scalability: Nearly 75% of reviewers who mention scalability note that it is cumbersome to scale the system to a company’s growing needs and cannot manage complex projects.
Cost: Trello offers limited functional and storage capabilities in its basic version, and advanced version requires per-user licensing, making it expensive for large teams, reported nearly 83% of users who mentioned cost.
Mobile Application: The system doesn’t perform well on mobile platforms, and its mobile application cannot perform all the functions of the desktop version, as reported by nearly 71% of users who mentioned mobile accessibility.
Installation: Trello is challenging to install and can overwhelm new users with its host of features, as reported by nearly 69% of users who talked about product set-up.
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Asana is a work management platform designed to help users organize and streamline operations with a user-friendly, customizable interface, automation and AI. Key features include the ability to create custom fields, deadlines, and subtasks, utilize various project views like Kanban boards and timelines, and leverage AI for summarizing tasks and drafting workflows. During my test of the software, I liked how easy it was to create a task by email and create project and task summaries using their AI tool.Customization was also a win. I built a task template for my Content Creation project with custom fields, relative due dates, assignees and a bulleted checklist. However, head’s up, adding task templates to existing tasks requires creating a new task with the template and merging it. Hands down, workflow management was one of my favorite parts of testing Asana. Adding in new sections (without having to go to the list view) and creating custom rules for transitions with a little help from their version of prompts was a breeze.Collaboration is another plus, with in-card comments and mentions, an inbox, group and individual messaging in platform and guest accounts with custom permissions for external users.On the downside, if you don’t have access to a free trial of the paid version (like I did), the free version may not be as effective. You won’t be able to access AI features, certain project views and resource management. The setup also isn’t exactly intuitive, and you may need training plus multiple visits to the help center to conceptualize your project and pick the right template.Overall, Asana is a fantastic all-in-one project management solution for users looking for a flexible tool with AI assistance and don’t mind springing for one of the paid plans.

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Trello includes robust workflow management and organizational capabilities for users to efficiently manage a project lifecycle. Its intuitive UI and clean dashboards simplify task delegation and monitoring, along with streamlining workflows. Its collaborative tools foster team communication and information sharing, while flexible integration capabilities help complete workflows. However, it lacks enterprise-grade project management abilities and is not suitable to handle large projects that require bulk movements. Additionally, the system provides limited features in its basic plan, and its mobile application lacks several functionalities offered by the desktop version.

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Screenshots

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