{
    "title": "Asana Alternatives 2027: 11 Paid, Free & Open-Source",
    "url": "https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/asana/",
    "summary": "The best Asana alternatives in 2027 are monday.com (best overall, $9/seat/mo billed yearly), ClickUp (best free plan) and Plane (best open source, AGPL-3.0). Asana itself starts at $10.99/user/mo billed yearly. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 11 Nov 2026; 8 more are compared below, including 5 with a free plan and 2 open source.",
    "tool": {
        "name": "Asana",
        "starting_price": "$10.99/user/mo billed yearly",
        "free_plan": "2 users, unlimited tasks and projects",
        "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
        "pricing_url": "https://asana.com/pricing"
    },
    "task": "Project and task management",
    "prices_checked": "2026-11-11",
    "date_modified": "2026-11-11",
    "alternatives": [
        {
            "name": "monday.com",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$9/seat/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "2 seats, 3 boards, 3 docs",
            "best_for": "Customisable boards with automation tiers",
            "difference": "monday.com meters automations in monthly action quotas (250 on Standard, 25,000 on Pro) and sells a separate monday dev product, while Asana's free tier already includes unlimited tasks.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://monday.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://monday.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/monday-com-ai-project-tracking/"
        },
        {
            "name": "ClickUp",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$9/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "Unlimited free members, 60 MB storage",
            "best_for": "Free teams that need many views and docs",
            "difference": "ClickUp's Free Forever plan allows unlimited members but caps storage at 60 MB and 100 automation actions a month; paid plans pool AI credits per user.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://clickup.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://clickup.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/clickup/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Trello",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$5/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "10 boards, 10 collaborators per Workspace",
            "best_for": "Simple kanban boards at low cost",
            "difference": "Trello is built around kanban boards and its free Workspace allows up to 10 boards and 10 collaborators; Asana's free plan stops at 2 users.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://trello.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://trello.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/trello/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Jira",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$8.48/user/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "Up to 10 users, 2 GB storage",
            "best_for": "Software teams tracking issues and sprints",
            "difference": "Jira is Atlassian's issue tracker with Cloud, Server and Data Center options; its free plan covers up to 10 users with 2 GB of storage and community support.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira",
            "zekai_score": 8.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/jira/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Wrike",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$10/user/mo billed yearly",
            "best_for": "Teams with custom request workflows",
            "difference": "Wrike's Team plan is limited to 2 to 15 users, Business runs 5 to 200 users, and Business and above are annual-only subscriptions.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.wrike.com/pricing/",
            "website": "https://www.wrike.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/wrike/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Smartsheet",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$9/member/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Spreadsheet-style project plans with grids",
            "difference": "Smartsheet is organised around a spreadsheet-style grid and offers a 30-day free trial instead of a free plan; Pro allows 1 to 10 members.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.smartsheet.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.smartsheet.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/smartsheet/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Basecamp",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$29/mo flat",
            "free_plan_limit": "1 project, 1 GB storage, 3 users max",
            "best_for": "Flat-rate pricing with no per-user fees",
            "difference": "Basecamp charges flat monthly rates by active project count, from $29 for 3 active projects, rather than per user as Asana does.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://basecamp.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://basecamp.com",
            "zekai_score": 9,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/basecamp/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Linear",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$10/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "Unlimited members, 250 issues",
            "best_for": "Product and engineering issue tracking",
            "difference": "Linear's Free plan has unlimited members but only 250 issues, and its paid tiers (Basic, Business) are priced per user with unlimited issues.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://linear.app/pricing",
            "website": "https://linear.app",
            "zekai_score": 9.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/linear/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Plane",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "$6/seat/mo (hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "AGPL-3.0",
            "best_for": "Self-hosted issues, cycles and modules",
            "difference": "Plane is open source under AGPL-3.0 and can be self-hosted with Docker or Kubernetes; its hosted Free plan allows 12 users and Pro lists $6 per seat.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://plane.so/pricing",
            "website": "https://plane.so",
            "repository": "https://github.com/makeplane/plane",
            "zekai_score": 8.7,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/plane/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Kanzo",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "AGPL-3.0",
            "best_for": "Kanban board shared with coding agents",
            "difference": "Kanzo is a self-hosted kanban board bundled with an MCP server so coding agents can take, move and comment on cards; it has no logins.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/emanuele-em/kanzo",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/kanzo/",
            "zekai_score": 6.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/kanzo/"
        },
        {
            "name": "OpenProject",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "€5.95/user/mo (hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "GPL-3.0",
            "best_for": "Self-hosted Gantt and classic project plans",
            "difference": "OpenProject's Community edition is free and open source under GPL-3.0; paid editions (Basic from 5.95 euros per user) add support and enterprise features and start at 25 users.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.openproject.org/pricing/",
            "website": "https://www.openproject.org",
            "repository": "https://github.com/opf/openproject",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openproject/",
            "zekai_score": 7.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openproject/"
        }
    ],
    "faq": [
        {
            "q": "What is the best alternative to Asana in 2027?",
            "a": "monday.com is the best overall Asana alternative on this page ($9/seat/mo billed yearly). For no cost, ClickUp has a free plan (Unlimited free members, 60 MB storage). To self-host, Plane is open source (AGPL-3.0)."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a free version of Asana?",
            "a": "Yes. Asana has a free plan: 2 users, unlimited tasks and projects. Paid plans start at $10.99/user/mo billed yearly, checked on 11 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a 100% free alternative to Asana?",
            "a": "Yes. Plane, Kanzo, OpenProject are open source and free to self-host. monday.com, ClickUp, Trello, Jira, Wrike, Basecamp, Linear have a free plan with limits, shown in the table."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is cheaper than Asana?",
            "a": "Trello starts at $5/user/mo billed yearly, against $10.99/user/mo billed yearly for Asana, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 11 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "How much do Asana alternatives cost for a team of 5?",
            "a": "If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 11 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Trello $25/mo, Plane $30/mo, Jira $42.40/mo, against Asana $54.95/mo for Asana. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size."
        },
        {
            "q": "Which is better, monday.com or Asana?",
            "a": "monday.com meters automations in monthly action quotas (250 on Standard, 25,000 on Pro) and sells a separate monday dev product, while Asana's free tier already includes unlimited tasks. Choose monday.com if you want a board-first workspace where automation and API limits scale by plan tier. Stay with Asana if you need unlimited tasks and projects at no cost for a two-person team."
        },
        {
            "q": "Why are people leaving Asana?",
            "a": "The documented reasons are: Asana's pricing page limits the free Personal plan to 2 users and excludes timeline views, reporting dashboards, automations, forms and custom fields (11 Nov 2026); Asana moved Premium customers to Starter in 2025; a staff reply said Starter allows 250 rule actions a month for the whole company, not per user (18 Jan 2025). Each is sourced in the section above."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is better than Asana?",
            "a": "It depends on the job. monday.com suits customisable boards, ClickUp suits free teams, Jira suits software work, and Basecamp suits teams that prefer flat pricing."
        }
    ],
    "publisher": "Zekai (zekaiwork.com) — independently reviewed; prices read on vendor pages on the dates shown.",
    "licence": "Free to quote with a link to https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/asana/. Bulk copying or republishing the dataset is not permitted."
}