Asana: Work in one place Reviews

by Simplify

I love project management software tools and the full computer web version of this app is a powerful, efficient tool. The mobile app, however, is exceedingly limited. If you are only managing a simple to-do list, no problem. If you have multiple projects with multiple team members, the mobile app is a roadblock to productivity. You cannot view tasks assigned only to you sorted by project. This is huge...you loose the context of the task inside and project. You can view all tasks by project, but you cannot filter to see only your tasks, but have to load and scroll past all those tasks assigned to your team members. If you have a few minutes waiting in line out in the world and want to check off a task...forget about it. You’ll wait for a while as Asana loads and then have to spend more time trying to find be relative content. OmniFocus has this solved exceedingly well, but is only for individuals, not teams. I sincerely hope this app will work on its mobile features. My team simply cannot use it on mobile or tablet devices.

by Meghan Fain

If people want to use this app to manage their work, great for them. What is awful about it is it forces their clients to use this app to communicate through asanas messages. I don’t want to install an app. I don’t want to click a link on my email to see what someone wrote me. I want to be able to search my own emails if I need to find something in our thread. I don’t want to use this app, but since the company I’m working with does, I have to go through the hassle. this app needs to send messages to others as normal emails or something to stop frustrating others who don’t want to use their system. My whole office is beyond annoyed to the point we don’t want to be the one to work with the clients who use this app. If you are thinking of using this app for your own business management, please don’t use their messaging and task system with others. It’s seriously frustrating for others working with you.

by Juliaaa_Rae

Let me start off by saying if you need a push notification to pop up as a reminder when something is due, Asana is NOT capable of providing that. I am beyond disappointed because Asana gave us everything that we were looking for. I had reached out to the Customer service team to inquire about this because I thought I was doing something incorrectly, however they have gotten back to me saying Asana is incapable of providing that sort of notification. I do want to note that I was getting notifications when something was commented on or liked, so the capability is there they just haven’t gotten to it yet. But overall great app, but disappointingly did not satisfy our needs.

by Korean Drama

I love this app. It’s one of the best productivity web apps I’ve used, and I particularly love how they listen to feedback. However, their mobile app and iPad app definitely needs some functionality and interface upgrades.

For one, my team tends to check on individual member bandwidth via calendar view, but currently that’s not possible when viewing tasks for other team members, only your own tasks and projects.

Another is the inability to see the projects a task belongs to when just glancing at your task list. I have to select each task individually to see what project they belong to. It’s quite annoying especially since we use templates for our projects — so I end up with 4 tasks with the same name from different projects.

There’s just a lot more functionality and interface design in the Web App over the mobile and iPad app. I’m okay with the restrictions for mobile, but I just switched to working on an iPad and would love to see Asana become a little more robust. Til then, I might just go on safari and use the web app on my iPad. Not ideal, but it’ll give me the functionality I need to use this app effectively.

by Stray Round

In general, while this product is solid and useful, it could be much better if not for the ivory tower attitude of its developers. It’s fine if you’re willing to do things their way. But they don’t give you enough control over the user experience which Is littered with little annoyances that drag down the overall experience. For example, there appears no way to turn off the annoying splash screen in the iOS app that displays for a ridiculously long time. There’s pretty much zero opportunity to tailor it to your preferences or needs. I won’t be persuaded to pay for Asana until there is. If you are evaluating this product, there is no obvious or easy way to ask questions or give feedback. (Sorry, help forums are not convenient. Convenient for the developer maybe, not the customer).

by Omnizen

this app has really been a game change for me personally. BUT, not so much for my team. People are typically stressed out and overwhelmed with this app because of these 3 things.

1- IOS and even on Web app, it’s EXTREMELY difficult getting to the conversations area. As a result, people on my team resort to random and chaotic text/email threads. Solution? Have a dedicated conversations/chat area on iOS, easy to find and not hidden away. It’s questionable how they placed conversations deep within project area. For those new to this app and even tech for that matter, it’s really a pain to get people to use a tool when important features are tucked away.

2- Feedback from my team has suggested that it is equally confusing and difficult trying to find files, folders and reference material. Sure this app has a dedicated space hidden to find files and app for a particular project however, there really needs to be a central are to not just see files/folders but have ways of organizing as see fit. In our business, our team is constantly using the same documents for projects or our business. Solution? Create a a documents/folders dashboards are for which to store and save files with flexibility. Basecamp did this the best having hierarchy and easy accessibility for documents and folders.

by Holyrandom

My small construction company has been using this app for almost 6 years now and this most recent App update which made a pretty big overhaul on the Inbox which has made it almost useless while trying to work in the field. I do like the swipe to archive feature and that you can hide a task string in the inbox, but now that you can’t “like” a comment right in the inbox OR read a comment that is longer than about 10 words only slows down the entire experience. The whole point of the inbox is that you can quickly read through all of the things happening in the various tasks that you own or collaborate on and having to open the task every time to see what someone said or like the comment to let them know you read it or whatever really slows down the workflow, especially if my cell service is slow, and now I find myself waiting until I can sit down at a computer to go through my inbox which is slowing down my response time and causing my inbox to stack up to overwhelming proportions almost daily. Keep the update format, but bring back full comments and the “like” button in the inbox.

by Mrs. Atkins

This is an excellent tool.
There are some inconveniences.
There seems to be no system or order for referencing attached files within tasks/projects. I understand this can be tricky because of the way files are attached to specific tasks or projects, however I’d wager this is a pain point for many users. I also noticed that one assigning hyperlinks to text inside a description of a task, the hyperlink will only populate information within a browser. The pain point here is users are unable to assign hyperlinks that open files from windows file explorer or Finder (for Apple). Please consider that many businesses Do not use cloud-based storage to House sensitive information but yet still need to be able to access files on the network. Allowing hyperlinks to open files within the file explorer could be a powerful solution.

by Livinthedream683693739

This has certainly helped with task management and notifying my employees on a central interface however there are a bit of kinks to be made:

-Being able to assign a task to more than one person so they show on their dashboard
-Being able to have "announcements" instead of just tasks and projects so I don't have to assign a task and add followers which once they view won't see again unless they search for it because I'm the person "assigned". I want it to show up on their dashboard until I remove it. The conversation option doesn't really work for this and is also not availablen on the phone app.
-the inbox has a tough time loading new and incoming notifications on the phone app and more often than not it won't load at all but I can see I have notifications yet to be seen so then I have to go on my computer to view the notifications in case it's time sensitive.
- I also would like for there to be company calendar everyone can view for the public events, mandatory events, and schedule.

by Murraycs

I like Asana for the most part. My only complaint is the confusing interface to filter tasks by label and long process of even adding labels to tasks.

Initially I thought that to filter by label I first have to remember a task that has the label I want, then click into that task and tap the label I want to filter. I’d much prefer a “filter by label” added to the drop down that includes “uncompleted” and such.

EDIT: It took some poking around, but for some unknown reason the ability to filter by task is under the Favorites tab in Projects. Sorry, but that makes very little sense. I’m glad I figured it out, but how does putting the ability to filter by label under Projects make any sense? They’re applied to tasks, so there should be that ability in the TASK list! This is a failure in basic interface design.

Also, for adding a label I have to created the task in the task list, then click into the task, tap the edit button, tap add label, and then type in the label. Far too many clicks. This greatly reduces the usefulness of Asana to me since I use labels extensively. Couldn’t you do a pop-up like iCal on the desktop does that allows you to change some of the basics of an entry?

Good things about Asana are that I can have my to-do list easily accessible on the go and assign team members to tasks relatively easily.

by GaardC

It needs a functionality similar to Gmail or Instagram where you can have (and monitor) separate accounts through the same app without having to log out and in.

I understand this is meant to happen through “Teams” and their different views, but linking two accounts this way is not always feasible (if one, for example, has two different and unrelated businesses both on this app that one would rather not associate; or one account for personal tasks, goals, errands and another is given by one’s workplace and they have no reason to be mixed).

by Allin1der.com

I was searching for the perfect task list / project management software to help me and my incredibly short attention span gain an ounce of organization. I needed it to synchronize with multiple devices. I needed it to keep my projects and clients separate, but also needed it to be able to link them if needed. I had to be able to upload files and link them to the projects and clients. I needed to keep notes and comments on each project to keep up with conversations that span emails and various other forms of messaging despite my pleas to stick to email. I found all of that with this app. Now, I don’t have to remember every detail because I can just take notes freely that are linked to my color coded, time stamped task.

It’s a fantastic app and one of the first and last I open daily. My only gripe with it is my inability to work with it on my iPad while I’m on the move since I couldn’t afford the model with cell data. It works when already connected and lost connection, but not if you freshly open Asana without being connected. If that little issue is resolved then I have no reason to give this less than 5 stars.

Even at the free level, it’s a great app.

by T.S.ing

We have been using this app extensively to manage both tasks and communication throughout all branches of the company. It’s a lifeline and an extremely valuable tool! Since the newest update a week ago, the work efficiency has been effected significantly. Unread messages are condensed into a drop down accordion (good), but even when you click on the drop down arrow parts of the threads gets cut off and we have to click into every conversation to read the full thread (bad). This is very inconvenient due to the start-from-first formatting in this app, rather than starting from the last comment and scrolling back to historical comments. This means A LOT of scrolling, and creating new/duplicate tasks, just to reduce the amount of scrolling before arriving at the latest comments. The “like” 👍🏻 feature is also less useful now as messages get condensed.

We are using this app for very time sensitive updates and tasks. Some employees may receive thousands of updates per day through all the various projects. With the new update, this makes it very difficult to handle the higher volume collaboration that this app is such a great resource for!

by Snurferb

After watching and reading how to work with this app I started to figure it out more and apply it to how I need to work. It works very well. I’m in the free tier at the moment which is a great thing this app offers, others only do 30 days. BUT there are lots of missing features, most important to me in timeline view and templates.

Most software nowadays you can unlock features with a paid upgrade and I feel this would be super easily for this app to implement a paid upgrade for one account. Currently you need to pay for 5 users minimum to get the features to make the platform awesome. Seems like a quick fix to make just a one person upgrade or maybe even just a pay to unlock feature sort of thing. Because of that I’m not sure if I’m going to stick around or not. It’s 1/4 the price to get these features from other companies and as a one man business that is a substantial amount.

by Zekeswheel

I use all the categories and features on the free version. There are 2 things that would make it even more amazing. The upcoming list would be cool if it were already sorted by date. You can get there with several clicks, but why not just set it up at from the start? 2. I used the repeat for all those habits I’m trying to build. I got a little carried away with sub tasks. So when I check off a repeat task with out checking off all the sub tasks, it adds all those sub tasks to a dark pit somewhere. My fix is to stop using the sub tasks and add the list to description. Or just change the date manually.

by Lab Fab Dad

In search of a low cost WIP (work in progress) app and found this. We are forcing it to do what we want and it couldn’t be any happier. Asana is amazing. It is flawless and every time we think “I wonder if we could implement this in Asana ?” .....we can. It does everything we need and not only allows us to communicate with those who depend on our services, but they can watch the progress on each of their items as well as see when it has shipped. Please don’t let Asana ever die! Our business now relies heavily on it.

by Cyzvcfyj

As an Ops Analyst and Graphic Designer I honestly don’t know what I would do without this app. I’d miss every deadline If it weren’t for this app. We are in the process of bringing the whole team on board!

Asana is definitely limiting so PLEASE check out the web version! Of all the limitations on Asana , the one major one I’d love to see rectified ASAP is toggling between this app accounts! I have two different jobs that both use this app and can only access one this app dashboard from Asana - no option to add an additional account/e-mail address. Big bummer as I have different deadlines every day!

P.S. I still think Asana is incredibly functional and worth a shot for everyone. Asana made me 10x productive, seriously.

by Jameson287

I use both the desktop and mobile version of this task manager. I love the ability and ease of use for me to be able to add, assign, follow, update etc my workflow. I’m a GM if a hotel and we have turned this workspace into a place to not only track guest requests, cleaning schedules, waiting lists and more to preventive maintenance and deep cleaning schedules. This keeps us on schedule and on target for completing required work. The ability to comment and attach files keeps all relevant information in a central location and is easily searchable both for completed and incomplete tasks. I recommend this to everyone I can and even show it to new GMs that start the company as a tool to plan their hotels as well.

by Carjackson

I own a business and we use this every day for our small team to keep up with all the millions of things we work on. From company goal setting social, media content planning, to daily to dos, events and more - I like that there’s a mobile app that syncs with desktop so you never miss a beat and get notified via push notifications.

I do wish recurring tasks once completed would disappear and reappear on the assigned date rather than living permanently on the board regardless of status.

It takes a little bit of getting use to as there’s so many features and ways to organize but overall it’s a pretty great app.

by Mlb92087

This is my favorite productivity app ever. I work at a church and this helps us manage our projects and special events. We use the desk top version for our task lists. But I love Asana because, when I am at events or church services away from my actual desktop, if someone asks me to do something, schedule a meeting with a pastor, or just whatever, it is so easy to simply add the task to my to-do list on the go. This removes the pressure of having to remember the task from Sunday to Monday, giving me my weekends back and freeing up mental real estate to focus on relationships rather than my calendar. It’s amazing!

by AdamTheEngineer

Asana is trash. It lets me login and think that I am creating a new project and tasks, and once I’ve done a bit of work it throws an error “can’t sync with server. Download the latest version”. Well I downloaded this version 5 minutes ago and there I no newer version. But really? What kind of customer experience is this? I would prefer Asana to crash completely before use rather than bait and switching me into doing work and then throwing all that work away during an error. I’m connected to WiFi but either way where is your offline mode? There’s seriously no queue so that offline entries can be persisted when you are online? Or in this case when you completely break the parity between mobile and your API.

by Russellholt

this app desktop is great, and this app on iPhone is also pretty good, but please fix the iPad app. It feels like little or no thought went into porting the iPhone version. If you only fix one thing here, fix the column proportions. Either make them resizable or dynamic or make them 50/50 instead of 75/25 or whatever it is. Seriously: when commenting on tasks, you give us a tiny, tiny box on the bottom right with a massive amount of empty space on the screen in the middle. Take a cue from Things 3, which does the task list UX on mobile far better.

The iPad would be the perfect this app device, but it’s actually less useful and more frustrating than this same app on the much smaller iPhone. 2/5

by Chris6791123

Thought I would use Asana for my husband and I to keep track of all our household projects. I am a Project Manager by day and have worked with a few different professional tools. this app is missing a very basic piece of functionality: prioritizing! The priority set by the drag and drop feature should be carried to all member’s lists of the project (everyone on the project should be working off the same priority). I looked up some work-arounds to accomplishing this, like custom fields, but they are not available in the free version. This should be an out-of-the-box, free feature. Going to delete Asana and keep looking for one to meet our needs.

by Adam LP

We’ve been using this app for a few months to manage projects in our print shop and it’s been a huge help keeping everyone connected. The desktop version is okay as is the iPad app. However, our primary use is the Project Calendar which doesn’t exist on the iPad app and, for some reason, disappears after a certain number of projects on the Desktop version. If they fix this, it would be the perfect tool for us. All of the functionality is there, shouldn’t be too much to include a higher level calendar view... but I’m no developer

by Taylortsantles

I run a small design agency with less than 5 people, so we need a tool that is robust, but not so feature-filled that it’s cumbersome to manage. This combines the best of tools like Trello (Boards/Kanban method) with more full featured task management and collaboration. I’ve gone through a host of tools, paid and unpaid, and this app has quickly become a favorite and indispensable part of our day to day operations. Asana itself offers most, if not all, of the features of the web app and is super fast. Highly recommended.

by Jinhhh

Not to discount the review below me. But god knows many apps have short comings. Honestly Asana is a great start to a program which to my knowledge is free? Least I have not encountered a time where I needed to pay. The desktop may have a bit more but I've seen many programs fall way shorter. In fact this is the first app I've taken a time to review. Again the guy below me might have run into some issues and I think the developers should take those into account, but honest to god to say Asana is a watered down todo list is pretty misrepresented. Again if he paid and found it lacking by all means complain. But I can say I've found a few apps and even online versions of paid programs more lacking (cough) QBO

by B Ok Services

I’d been searching for a project management system for a really long time. My ultimate test had always been tied to “adoption” and our continued failure to achieve sustainable adoption. Im also a big fan of a Gantt chart. Well I’ve seen this system fully adopted three
times. My modified test became “can my mom use it?” this app met that challenge too. I was able to talk her through it on the phone. I may have gotten a few too many alerts all at once, but she got the hang of it!