PLANE VS ASANA
Switch from Asana
Project management with built-in Wiki and AI, but without the dashboard theatre, notification overload, or the constant paywalls.
Project management with built-in Wiki and AI, but without the dashboard theatre, notification overload, or the constant paywalls.
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Speed | Sub-second everyday actions, even on large boards. | Snappy for small projects. Slows under scale. |
Setup | From workspace to shipping in minutes. Cloud or self‑host. | Templates help but sprawl grows fast. |
Usability | Intuitive, keyboard‑first. Subtasks are visible and manageable. | Friendly UI, but subtasks hide behind clicks. |
Structure | Teams → Projects → Modules and Cycles → Work Items. Sane defaults. | Projects are siloed by function. Workarounds for sprints and epics. |
Visibility | Work and Pages in one place. Cross‑team views by default. | Dashboards and status updates per project. |
Docs | Full-function Pages and Wiki. Turn notes into work items inline. Keep knowledge next to work. | Project Brief only. No Wiki. |
AI and Automation | Rules and AI across work items, pages, and Intake, all native. | Rules available. Many needs push to add‑ons. |
Cost to scale | TCO is much lower and reduces further as you go over 500 seats, no unpredictable costs for add-ons | TCO is much higher, and paywalls for views and goals add up quickly at scale |
Deployment options | Cloud, self-hosted, and air-gapped, open-source | Cloud only |
Move off Asana with a controlled import that brings projects, tasks, subtasks,
and history into Plane while Asana stays read-only during cutover.
Most teams finish a first dry run in under three hours; larger workspaces pilot a few projects, then migrate the rest over 3-7 days
Connect. Map. Import. Go live.
Authenticate, select workspaces/teams, choose scope.
Pages and Wiki sit beside work items with inline create, backlinks, and permissions, so reviews finish in one surface.
Aging WIP, carry-over, dependencies, and release readiness are built in, so bottlenecks surface early.
Intake routes to owners with rules, SLA timers, and escalation, so work starts structured and stays owned.
PRs and checks link to work with a visible readiness gate, so ship risk is obvious before a meeting.
Role digests, smart follow or unfollow, and two-way Slack threads send the right update to the right person.
Docs, roadmaps, analytics, and rules are included with the same price on cloud or self-host, so TCO stays predictable.
Run Plane your way. Choose between fully managed cloud, self-hosted or completely offline airgapped.
Plane Cloud is the fully managed edition that gives you the fastest, lowest-friction path from rollout to real operational value.
Docs, roadmaps, analytics, and automations included. Same price on cloud or self-host.
per user, per month
per user, per month
Have fewer than 12 users? Take advantage of our Free Plan. All our
plans provide access to Plane’s core features
Get white-glove migration and onboarding for teams with 100+ seats,
from importer setup and field mapping to rollout playbooks.
Plane’s GitHub integration syncs issues and PRs, mapping states both ways and auto-linking branches, commits, and pull requests.
Create work items from Slack messages, sync thread replies both ways, and keep updates in the channel.
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Layouts | List, Board, Calendar, Gantt, Kanban — all included | List, Board, Calendar included; Gantt on paid tiers. |
Core model | Workspace → Projects → Epics → Work Items → Sub-work items. Shared schemas keep views aligned. | Organization/Teams → Projects → Sections → Tasks → Subtasks; hierarchy grows per team conventions. |
Project management | Unified workspace with projects, work items, cycles, modules, and pages in a single platform — no add-ons | Task-centric coordination; Portfolios/Goals/Workload available on higher tiers when needed. |
Docs and Wiki | Pages and Wiki available out-of-the-box | Per-project Briefs and attached docs; org-wide wiki commonly lives in a separate tool. |
Issue tracking | Streamlined, intuitive tracking in all plans | General task tracking; engineering flows assembled via custom fields, rules, and apps. |
Cloud option | Modern cloud platform with quick setup | Cloud-only, with regional data-residency options |
Templates | Project and Pages templates available out-of-the-box | Template library available; custom project templates start on paid tiers. |
Storage limits | Free (5GB), Pro (1TB), Business (5TB), Enterprise (Custom) with transparent file size limits | Per-file upload capped to 100MB. |
Custom fields | Available in Pro+ plans with no limits — supports text, number, date, dropdown, user, boolean fields, and more | Custom fields from Starter; locked/org-wide governance features on Advanced/Enterprise. |
Time tracking | Native time-tracking | Native available only on Advanced/Enterprise. |
Admin overhead | Minimal by design | Governance effort rises as projects multiply; stronger controls are concentrated in Enterprise. |
Custom dashboards and widgets | Modern, ready-to-use dashboards with customizable widgets. Point-and-click customization | Dashboards/Universal Reporting on paid plans; deeper analysis typically assembled via reports or BI. |
Intake and Approvals | Built-in intake and Approvals | Forms available on Starter; Approvals/proofing added on Advanced and above. |
Integrations | Growing marketplace with native integrations, available both on cloud and self-hosted | Large app ecosystem and open API; deeper workflows often wired through integrations. |
Self-hosting | Complete self-hosted option | No self-hosted edition; operates in vendor cloud (with data residency). |
Security features | RBAC, LDAP, audit logs included in Enterprise | SSO/SAML/SCIM and admin controls on Enterprise; Audit Log/API and compliance features at higher tiers. |
AI and Automations | Native automations and AI assistance | Rules/Workflow Builder from Starter; Asana AI/AI Studio availability and limits vary by tier. |
Support | Community, email (Pro+), priority (Business+) | The Help Centre and community are free; priority/onboarding support is focused on Enterprise. |
Pricing transparency | Simple plans with more features included | Tiered per-seat pricing; advanced capabilities and AI sit in higher tiers. |
Import a live project, keep Asana read-only for a week, and see how
work feels when boards, docs, and analytics live in one place.
