What should you choose between Asana vs. Microsoft Teams?
The pandemic and the growing work-from-home trend have made collaboration tools and platforms a vital component of our work lives. They help keep the team organized, focused, and on task.
With Asana and Microsoft Teams being two of the most popular tools in this category, a detailed comparison is essential to choose the best.
So, let’s dive in!
What is Asana?
Asana defines itself as a “simple project management solution created to help teams achieve their goals.” Basically, it is a web-based tool that allows teams to plan, organize, collaborate, track, and execute tasks.
The popularity of Asana can be determined by the fact that it has over 100,000 paid customers along with millions of free customers in 190+ countries.
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a chat-based collaboration app created for hybrid teams so that they can stay organized, connected, and informed. The app is part of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suite of applications and can be used by businesses and teams of every size.
With a user base of over 250 million, Microsoft is one of the most popular business communication apps in the world.
Asana vs. Microsoft Teams: The Showdown
Let’s compare Asana and Microsoft Teams with regard to certain factors vital to project management and team collaboration-
Project Management
Asana
Asana is a true project management platform. It eliminates the need for users to shuffle between emails, spreadsheets, and other tools to manage their projects.
Some of the noteworthy task management features of Asana include creating tasks, setting priorities, assigning dependencies, defining project timelines, automating routine tasks, and tracking project updates in real time.
For project visualization, it offers interactive Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and even custom views. To help you kick off projects faster, Asana also has an extensive template vault.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft is more of a communication tool. However, it does offer handy project management features. Like Asana, users can use Teams for creating and managing tasks, assigning responsibilities, setting project timelines, and tracking progress directly from the workflow.
Microsoft Teams project management capabilities also include Gantt charts and scrum boards for visualization, feedback tools, and custom reports.
Winner- Asana
When it comes to project management, Asana is a far better option than Microsoft Teams. While Teams also comes with powerful features for managing projects from start to finish, they are more like add-ons to a communication app.
Asana, on the other hand, is a full-fledged project management tool that can take care of all your project management needs.
Collaboration and Communication
Asana
Asana is a project management solution and a great one at that! As collaboration and communication are critical components of project management, it does come with a few features to facilitate that.
For instance, when you create a task in Asana and add team members, they can communicate, share updates, and discuss specific project actions. It also allows users to share files, including PDFs, JPGs, Google Docs, and more.
Microsoft Teams
In Microsoft Teams vs. Asana, collaboration and communication is probably the aspect where Teams shines the brightest. The real-time chat functionality of the tool includes instant messaging, group conversation, one-to-one conversation, and even file sharing.
One of the reasons why Teams has grown in popularity in the last couple of years is its high-quality audio and video meeting functionality. Whether you’re working with a remote or hybrid team, the meetings feature of Teams with instant reactions, screen sharing, and more, enable seamless collaboration.
Winner- Microsoft Teams
As mentioned in the beginning, Microsoft Teams is a chat-based team collaboration tool and has everything you’ll need to effectively collaborate and communicate with your team.
While Asana also comes with communication features, they are not comprehensive when compared to Teams as it mostly focuses on being a project and task management tool.
User-Friendliness
Asana
Asana has a clean and intuitive interface to support your project management objectives. The layout’s focus on projects, lists, and timelines ensures every user can easily manage their projects and tasks.
To make everything more streamlined, there’s also a sidebar navigation with instant access to all your task details and project views. The Asana website also has an extensive library with hundreds of blogs, articles, and videos to help you get started and take maximum advantage of the platform.
But if this is the first time you’re using one such project management tool, there is a bit of a learning curve to get started with Asana.
Microsoft Teams
Navigating Microsoft Office is as easy as it can be. Especially, if you’ve used other Microsoft 365 products in the past, using Teams will be a breeze. Moreover, it can also be readily integrated with other products like OneDrive and Outlook.
Whether you want to schedule a video meeting or create a new channel or team, everything is neatly organized for maximum efficiency.
Winner- Microsoft Teams
Both Asana and Teams are highly user-friendly. They have a clean, de-cluttered, and intuitive design to ensure you don’t have to waste any time searching for the features you need.
But as project management in itself is more complex than communication and Asana focuses more on the project management aspect, using it can be a slight challenge if you’ve never used one such tool in the past. But with the help of all the guides, blogs, and videos available on their website, it shouldn’t take long to master this powerful tool.
On the other hand, using Microsoft Teams is fairly straightforward. If you’ve used any of the Microsoft 365 tools in the past, you can effortlessly use Teams from the get-go.
App Integrations
Asana
Asana offers plenty of integration options, including Slack, Jira, Google Drive, Gmail, Outlook, and more. Apart from built-in integrations, you can also use Zapier and Asana’s API to connect the tool with a host of other cross-platform task apps and solutions.
Microsoft Teams
Teams is part of Microsoft’s 365 universe and seamlessly integrates with several other Microsoft 365 applications we use in our everyday lives. From accessing SharePoint sites and scheduling Outlook meetings to collaborating and sharing OneDrive files, you can do all of it and much more from within Microsoft Teams.
To maximize team productivity and automate workflows, Microsoft Teams can also be integrated with over 700 apps and tools.
Winner- Microsoft Teams
When it comes to app integrations for Asana vs. Microsoft Teams, the latter wins the battle by a considerable margin. While Asana can also be integrated with many popular productivity, communication, and issue-tracking tools, the options are way more comprehensive with Microsoft Teams.
But even if you use Asana, its API and Zapier should facilitate integration with most of the popular solutions.
Pricing
Asana
Asana comes with a Basic plan for teams or individuals getting started with project management. The plan comes with limited features and is free forever.
The Premium plan starts at $10.99/user/month and comes with advanced project management features and capabilities, including WorkFlow Builder, Forms, Task Templates, Timeline, Unlimited Dashboards, and more.
There’s also an Asana Business plan that costs $24.99/user/month for companies and teams looking to manage projects across initiatives. The plan includes added features, like Portfolios, Forms Customization & Branching, Goals, Custom Rules Builder, Approvals, and Advanced Integrations.
Microsoft Teams
There are three different ways to start using Microsoft Teams. You can use the Free plan, subscribe to Teams Essentials, or get it along with Microsoft 365 Business Basic or Business Standard plan.
With the Free plan, you get group calling for up to 100 participants and up to 60 minutes, 5GB cloud storage, and collaborative planning with polling and tasks. By subscribing to Microsoft Teams Essentials, you’ll be paying $4/user/month for added features like unlimited group meetings for up to 300 participants and up to 30 hours, file sharing, 10GB cloud storage, and more.
Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Standard cost $6/user/month and $12.50/user/month respectively for advanced features such as Microsoft whiteboard, collaborative apps, mobile and web versions of Microsoft 365 apps, business-class email, team meeting recording, 1TB per user storage, webinar hosting, customer appointment management, and more.
Winner- Asana and Microsoft Teams
With regards to pricing, both Asana and Microsoft Teams are competitively priced. Given that Asana is more focused on project management and Teams is more inclined towards communication, both tools offer great value for money.
Top Features of Asana and Microsoft Teams
Before concluding this Asana vs. Microsoft Teams article, let’s have a quick look at the top features of these tools-
| Feature | Asana | Microsoft Teams |
| Project Management | √ | √ |
| File Sharing | √ | √ |
| Task Management | √ | √ |
| Content Management | √ | X |
| Video Conferencing | X | √ |
| Version Control | √ | X |
| Calendar Management | √ | √ |
| Discussions/Forums | √ | √ |
Asana vs. Microsoft Teams: Conclusion
So, what should you select between Asana vs. Microsoft Teams? The selection between the two is straightforward. If you need a project management tool with extensive task management capabilities, Asana is the way to go. But if your focus is more on a tool that helps with communication and collaboration, select Microsoft Teams.
And if you’re still confused with the decision, thoroughly understand your requirements and then try using the free version of both Asana and Teams. After using them for a few days, you’ll definitely have a clear understanding of which tool better fulfills your requirements. Airtable is another famous hybrid project management tool. Check out our Airtable vs Asana comparison to know the features and the differences.
FAQs
1. Which is Better Asana or Teams?
As can be seen in the Asana vs. Microsoft Teams comparison above, both tools have their benefits.
While Asana has extensive project and task management tools, Microsoft Teams simplifies team communication and collaboration, especially if you’re following a remote or hybrid working model.
2. What is the Main Difference Between Asana and Microsoft Teams?
The most significant difference between Asana and Teams is the fact that the former is a full-fledged project management tool with collaboration and communication capabilities, while the latter is a feature-packed collaboration and communication app with useful project management features.
3. Is Asana Compatible with Microsoft Teams?
Yes, you can install Asana for Teams to leverage the powerful project management features of Asana without leaving Teams. Follow these steps-
- Open Microsoft Teams and click on the “Apps” tab in the left navigation bar
- Type “Asana” in the search bar and click “Add”
- Once added, the Asana bot will be added to your chat
- Log in to your Asana account through the bot and you’re ready to use this Teams + Asana integration
Note that the Microsoft Teams admin will have to allow the installation of other apps in order to use the Asana integration.
4. Is Asana Free for Microsoft Teams?
You can use the Free plan of Asana with Microsoft Teams without paying any money. However, if you want to access the advanced features and capabilities of Asana, you’ll have to purchase Asana Premium or Business plan, irrespective of whether you’re using it with Microsoft Teams or not.
5. Can You Integrate Microsoft Teams with Asana?
Yes, as both Teams and Asana are highly popular project management and collaboration tools, there is a Teams + Asana integration available. You don’t need to use any APIs or any other tools to integrate them. Simply follow the steps discussed in Q.3 above to integrate Teams with Asana.
