Asana vs Zoho Projects

Last Updated:

Our analysts compared Asana vs Zoho Projects 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

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.

read more...
Zoho Projects is a cloud-based solution that lets teams effectively plan and execute projects of any size and duration. It handles tasks, enhances collaboration, provides business intelligence for reporting and supports time tracking and issue management.

Businesses can extend it using numerous integrations and customizations to align it with their requirements. It is usable by teams of smaller than five people up to teams with thousands of users. Zoho provides robust data security and is compliant with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework. It also supports 17 different languages.
read more...
$10.99/User, Monthly, Freemium
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
$4/User, Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

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.
read more...
  • Automate Workflows: Automate manual tasks like updating issue details or changing an issue’s severity. Set email notifications to track different events or set up webhooks for communicating with third-party apps. 
  • Transfer from Jira or Basecamp: Migrate data when switching from Jira or Basecamp with certain restrictions. Capture data such as discussions, calendar events, projects, users, bugs, custom fields, milestones and other details, depending on the import module. 
  • Free Version: Get a forever free subscription for a small team of up to five users. It includes two projects, custom status options for tasks and projects, calendar functionality, feeds, project forums, integration with Google apps and file attachments up to 10 MB. 
  • Integrated Suite: Get abilities beyond project management to CRM, accounting, HR, BI and analytics, customer service and more. Create a unified module to handle multiple business needs. 
  • Integrations:  Integrate with several third-party modules to extend project management capabilities. Integrate with major Google and Microsoft apps as well as a host of other tools like Dropbox, GitHub and Slack. 
  • Mobile Apps: Let teams access project details, attach files, log hours and more while away from the office with its native apps for iOS, iPad and Android. View tasks via List or Kanban layouts in portrait or landscape modes. 
read more...
  • 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.
read more...
  • Task Management: Control important task details, add important information such as priority or duration with tasks and subtasks. Link tasks to create dependencies. Highlight each project phase with milestones. Organize tasks using drag-and-drop Kanban boards and custom layouts. 
  • Social Project Management: Communicate and collaborate for effective project management. Create public or private chat rooms, pages for team knowledge base and forums to engage in discussion. Centralize project updates with feeds. Create new posts while adding comments to existing posts. 
  • Charts and Reports: View project details and metrics using a variety of charts. Get a high-level view of project tasks and dependencies through Gantt charts while resource utilization charts break down each team member’s workload by day. Gain insights into project performance across a wide range of KPIs with over 50 out-of-the-box reports and dashboards. 
  • Time Tracking: Let employees log their hours on a timesheet automatically or manually while allowing managers to view reports based on personnel, time or project. Transform a timesheet to an invoice with a few simple steps. Compare the expected task duration with the actual time spent on a task. Track each member’s availability, issues and milestones using calendar views. 
  • Issue Tracking: Report issues with all the relevant details and assign them for attention. Importing issues in bulk keeps them all in one place, and you can then export them as an XLS or CSV file. Track all issues according to criteria using filtered views. View committed changes with all changeset details included. 
read more...

Product Ranking

#2

among all
Project Management Software

#9

among all
Project Management Software

Find out who the leaders are

Analyst Rating Summary

85
89
84
100
77
84
69
75
Show More Show More
Team Collaboration
Task Management
Integrations and Extensibility
Platform Features
Platform Security
Customizations
Task Management
Integrations and Extensibility
Time Tracking and Management
Team Collaboration

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Asana
Zoho Projects
+ 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 50 100 84 75 84 77 87 100 91 94 0 25 50 75 100
86%
0%
14%
100%
0%
0%
80%
0%
20%
60%
40%
0%
57%
0%
43%
57%
0%
43%
88%
0%
12%
75%
13%
12%
75%
8%
17%
58%
17%
25%
43%
14%
43%
57%
43%
0%
83%
17%
0%
100%
0%
0%
92%
0%
8%
92%
0%
8%
14%
0%
86%
86%
14%
0%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

89%
0%
11%
94%
0%
6%
88%
0%
12%
88%
0%
12%

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 27379 reviews
Great User Sentiment 872 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.

87%
of users recommend this product

Zoho Projects has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 872 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

4.8 (15)
5.0 (34)
4.4 (10490)
4.2 (255)
n/a
4.2 (242)
4.5 (13154)
n/a
4.3 (1084)
4.6 (236)
4.2 (2636)
4.3 (105)

Awards

we're gathering data

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Zoho Projects and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Customizations, Task Management and Integrations and Extensibility.

Customizations Award
Task Management Award
Integrations and Extensibility Award

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.
Show more
Functionality: Zoho Projects offers robust tools to manage multiple business needs, including project management, resource allocation, efficient collaboration and timesheets, as reported by approximately 90% of the users who mention the product’s functionality.
Flexible: The system is highly flexible and can be configured for different purposes like marketing and other business requirements, noted nearly 85% of customers who talked about its flexibility.
Integrations: Approximately 75% of the reviewers who mentioned integrations observed that the solution offers multiple APIs and seamless integration with other Zoho suite products and popular external modules for project planning and implementation.
Centralized Communication: The system centralizes all project communication between teams, which makes it easy to search and fix issues, noted nearly 72% of the users who talked about its communication capabilities.
Show more
>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.
Show more
Not Intuitive: The system is not user-friendly with a clunky and unintuitive UI compared to its competitors, reported 88% of reviewers who mentioned the system’s usability.
Cost: Nearly 92% of the users who mentioned cost remarked that Zoho Projects is expensive for small teams looking for more features on a limited budget, doesn’t offer options to customize functionality and its package price is a costly investment for bigger teams with more users.
Data and Reporting: Data generated by the system is difficult to comprehend, and it doesn’t allow report customization using different fields and visuals, observed by about 86% of customers who mentioned reporting.
Support: Customer support is slow and doesn’t offer enough support documentation or tutorial videos to exploit the system’s capabilities fully, noted 80% of reviewers who talked about support.
Show more

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.

Show more

Zoho Projects offers comprehensive solutions for its customers to tackle multiple business needs with ease. Users have full control of their projects as they can manage every stage of project progress, allocate resources, manage tasks, record timesheets and automate workflow processes for standardization. It offers an extensive knowledge base and fosters team collaboration for efficient project completion. However, its UI is clunky and difficult to use, it requires a steep learning curve to make optimal use of its full capabilities, comes with limited features in its basic version and offers sluggish customer support.

Show more

Screenshots

Top Alternatives in Project Management Software


Airtable

Basecamp

ClickUp

Jira

LiquidPlanner

MeisterTask

Microsoft Project

monday.com

ProofHub

Smartsheet

TeamGantt

Teamwork

Wrike

Zoho Projects

Related Categories

Head-to-Head Comparison

WE DISTILL IT INTO REAL REQUIREMENTS, COMPARISON REPORTS, PRICE GUIDES and more...

Compare products
Comparison Report
Just drag this link to the bookmark bar.
?
Table settings