Asana is good at something specific: making fifty projects legible to someone who is not working on any of them. Portfolios, goals, workload balancing, approval flows. If you are a program manager, that is worth paying for.
If you are a team of nine using it as a shared task list, you are paying $10.99 per user a month, minimum, for a fraction of that. And when your company adopts an identity provider and you go looking for SAML single sign-on, you will find it on the Enterprise tier.
That gap, between what Asana is built for and what most teams use it for, is why people go looking. This is a comparison of the 10 tools worth considering, including the free and self-hostable ones that most round-ups skip. Prices were checked in August 2026, so confirm on the vendor's own page before you commit.
TL;DR: the 10 best Asana alternatives
- Kaneo for teams who want a real tracker they can self-host for free, with SSO included.
- ClickUp for teams who genuinely want docs, whiteboards, and chat alongside tasks.
- monday.com for visual, non-engineering workflows and dashboards.
- Trello for the simplest possible board, at the lowest possible price.
- Notion for teams whose work lives in documents and whose tasks are a side effect.
- Basecamp for flat-rate pricing and client-facing project communication.
- Wrike for larger operations teams needing proofing, request forms, and resource allocation.
- Linear for product and engineering teams who want speed over breadth.
- Plane for an open-source, self-hostable tracker with a modern interface.
- OpenProject for classical project management with Gantt charts and budgets.
Why teams look for an Asana alternative
Per-seat pricing that scales the wrong way. At $10.99 per user a month, a fifteen-person team is roughly $165 a month, or about $2,000 a year, for project tracking. That is defensible if you use the portfolio and goals layer. It is hard to defend if you use boards and due dates.
The free tier is small. Asana's free plan caps collaborators at a level most real teams pass quickly, which turns "let's try it" into a purchase decision faster than you expect.
Single sign-on is an Enterprise feature. SAML sits on Enterprise, which is quote-only. This is the industry norm rather than an Asana quirk, but it is the point where a lot of teams reassess. We track which project management tools include SSO for free if that is your constraint.
No self-hosting, at all. Asana is cloud only. If you have a data residency requirement, a compliance obligation, or simply want to own the database, there is no configuration that gets you there.
Feature weight you do not use. Goals, portfolios, workload, and approvals are genuinely good and genuinely irrelevant to a nine-person team shipping software.
Asana alternatives compared
| Tool | Open source | Self-host | SSO included | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaneo | Yes (MIT) | Yes | Yes, on every plan | Cloud from $4/mo, self-host free |
| ClickUp | No | No | Business tier and above | From $7 per user / month |
| monday.com | No | No | Enterprise tier | Per user, with seat blocks |
| Trello | No | No | Enterprise tier | Free tier, then per user |
| Notion | No | No | Business tier | Per member, per month |
| Basecamp | No | No | No | Flat rate, not per user |
| Wrike | No | No | Higher tiers | From $10 per user / month |
| Linear | No | No | Paid plans | Per user, cloud only |
| Plane | Community edition (AGPL-3.0) | Yes | Pro tier and above | $0 Community |
| OpenProject | Community edition (GPLv3) | Yes | Enterprise add-on | $0 Community |
| Asana (for reference) | No | No | Enterprise tier | From $10.99 per user / month |
How we evaluated these tools
We build Kaneo, which is the first entry on this list. So here is the criteria, stated up front, and an honest section under every tool explaining when it beats Kaneo.
- Cost at ten and at fifty users. Per-seat pricing behaves very differently at those two points.
- What the free tier actually allows, in collaborators, projects, and features.
- Licence and self-hosting. Whether you can run it, and whether the free build is complete.
- Single sign-on. Included, paid tier, or absent.
- Fit for the work. Engineering tickets and operations coordination are different problems.
- Data portability. Export, import, and a documented API.
- Deployment and maintenance burden for the self-hosted options.
- Where it is genuinely better than Kaneo.
The 10 best Asana alternatives in 2026
1. Kaneo
Where Asana is a coordination layer for many teams, Kaneo is a focused tracker for one: boards, backlog, workflow columns, roles, labels, priorities, task relations, comments, attachments, and time tracking. Everything a team needs to run its own work, and nothing aimed at making that work legible to a program manager three levels up.
Kaneo Cloud is hosted in the EU and priced at $5 per user a month, less than half of Asana's entry tier, with single sign-on on every plan instead of an Enterprise conversation. Backups, updates, and email support are ours to worry about. Kaneo is also open source under the MIT licence, so you can export everything or move it to your own server if you ever want to, which is a materially different position from a tool with no exit at all.
Key features
- Kanban boards and list views with realtime updates
- Backlog planning and configurable workflow columns per project
- Workspace roles and permissions
- Time tracking, comments, attachments, labels, priorities, and task relations
- Single sign-on with Google, GitHub, Discord, or any OIDC provider, on every plan
- Automatic backups, updates, and email support on Kaneo Cloud
- Public REST API, API keys, webhooks, and an MCP server for AI agents
- GitHub, Gitea, Slack, Discord, and Telegram integrations
- Per-project JSON export and import
Pros: Roughly half Asana's per-seat price, single sign-on on every plan, EU hosting with backups and updates handled, no feature paywalls between tiers, and an open-source escape hatch if you ever want out.
Cons: No portfolios, goals, or workload views. No Gantt charts. If you use Asana's rollup reporting, Kaneo does not replace it.
Pricing: Kaneo Cloud is $4 a month for one user and $5 per user a month for teams, 14-day trial, no credit card. Annual billing works out at $3.33 and $4.17 a month. Self-hosting under MIT is available if you would rather run it yourself.
Best for: Teams who want the tracking part of Asana without paying coordination-layer prices for it.
Why choose it over Asana: A fifteen-person team goes from roughly $165 a month to $75, and single sign-on stops being an Enterprise conversation. Full breakdown on our Kaneo vs Asana page.
2. ClickUp
ClickUp is the broadest tool on this list: tasks, docs, whiteboards, chat, dashboards, goals, and time tracking in one product. If your objection to Asana is price rather than scope, ClickUp gives you more for less.
Key features: Dozens of views, docs, whiteboards, chat, dashboards, goals, automations, native time tracking.
Pros: Enormous feature surface, generous free tier, cheaper per seat than Asana, one subscription instead of several.
Cons: Cloud only and proprietary. The breadth is genuinely overwhelming for a small team, and someone has to configure it properly. SAML single sign-on sits on the Business tier and above.
Pricing: Paid tiers from $7 per user a month. See ClickUp's pricing.
Best for: Teams who actually want the docs, whiteboards, and chat, not just the tasks.
Why choose it over Asana: More capability at a lower per-seat price. Compare with Kaneo vs ClickUp if the breadth is the part you would turn off.
3. monday.com
monday.com is a work OS rather than a tracker. Colourful boards, dashboards, forms, automations, and CRM templates, aimed squarely at operations, marketing, and sales teams.
Key features: Customisable boards, dashboards, forms, automation recipes, CRM and HR templates, an app marketplace.
Pros: Highly visual and approachable for non-technical teams, does far more than task tracking, strong template library.
Cons: Cloud only, proprietary, sold in seat blocks rather than exact headcount, and single sign-on is an Enterprise-tier feature. The free tier is very limited.
Pricing: Per user with seat minimums. See monday.com's pricing.
Best for: Non-engineering teams who want dashboards and forms alongside their work.
Why choose it over Asana: More flexible board structures and a stronger automation story for operations work. See Kaneo vs monday.com for the self-hosted comparison.
4. Trello
Trello is the simplest board that works. If Asana feels like too much structure, Trello is the opposite end of that spectrum, and its free tier is genuinely usable.
Key features: Drag-and-drop boards, cards, checklists, due dates, Power-Ups for anything beyond the basics.
Pros: Almost no learning curve, strong free tier, cheap paid tiers, universally understood.
Cons: Cloud only and proprietary. No backlog, no real workflow model, and anything beyond a board means Power-Ups. Single sign-on is Enterprise-tier.
Pricing: Free tier, then per user.
Best for: Small teams and personal projects that need a board and nothing else.
Why choose it over Asana: Dramatically simpler and cheaper. If you want that simplicity on your own server, see Kaneo vs Trello or our guide to self-hosted Trello alternatives.
5. Notion
Notion is a flexible workspace for documents, wikis, and lightweight databases. Plenty of teams run projects in it by building a task database, and for the right team that works well.
Key features: Documents and wikis, databases with board, table, calendar, and timeline views, templates, and an increasingly capable automation layer.
Pros: Genuinely excellent at documentation, extremely flexible, one place for notes and tasks.
Cons: Cloud only and proprietary. Project tracking is something you build and maintain rather than something you get, and it tends to drift. Single sign-on starts at the Business tier.
Pricing: Per member per month. See Notion's pricing.
Best for: Teams whose work lives in written documents, where the task list is a side effect.
Why choose it over Asana: One tool for docs and light tracking instead of two subscriptions. Compare with Kaneo vs Notion if the database has started getting in the way.
6. Basecamp
Basecamp charges a flat monthly fee rather than per user, which is a genuinely good deal for larger teams and an unusual position in this market.
Key features: Message boards, to-do lists, docs and files, group chat, automatic check-ins, and client access.
Pros: Flat pricing that does not scale with headcount, opinionated and calm, strong client-facing features.
Cons: Cloud only and proprietary. Organised around message boards and to-do lists rather than a kanban board and backlog. No single sign-on.
Pricing: Flat rate, not per user. See Basecamp's pricing.
Best for: Companies whose project tool is also their internal communication tool, especially agencies with client access needs.
Why choose it over Asana: Predictable cost at any team size, and a much calmer product. See Kaneo vs Basecamp if you want the board and backlog back.
7. Wrike
Wrike is aimed at larger marketing, professional services, and operations teams: request forms, proofing, resource allocation, and time-and-budget reporting in one place.
Key features: Request forms, proofing and approvals, resource management, time and budget reporting, Gantt charts, custom item types.
Pros: The most complete option here for billable client work at scale, with genuine resource management.
Cons: Cloud-first and proprietary, priced per user from $10 a month with plan-specific user ranges that make the tier maths awkward. Single sign-on sits on higher tiers.
Pricing: From $10 per user a month.
Best for: Operations and professional services teams running billable work.
Why choose it over Asana: Stronger proofing and resource allocation. See Kaneo vs Wrike if you want one feature set instead of user bands.
8. Linear
Linear is the fastest and most polished tracker in the category. It is not an Asana replacement for marketing teams, but for a product or engineering team leaving Asana, it is often the right destination.
Key features: Cycles, triage inbox, projects and initiatives, insights, keyboard-first navigation, deep GitHub and Slack integrations.
Pros: Exceptional speed and polish, excellent engineering workflow, no configuration overhead.
Cons: Cloud only, proprietary, opinionated in a way that suits software teams and few others. Single sign-on on paid plans.
Pricing: Per user, cloud only. See Linear's pricing.
Best for: Product and engineering teams who value speed over breadth.
Why choose it over Asana: Far better suited to shipping software. See Kaneo vs Linear for the self-hostable version of that idea.
9. Plane
Plane is an open-source tracker with a modern interface, close in shape to Linear. The Community edition is AGPL-3.0 and free to self-host.
Key features: Cycles, modules, intake, pages, issue hierarchy, self-hosted Community edition.
Pros: Genuinely good interface, actively developed, free Community edition, no per-seat cost when self-hosted.
Cons: AGPL-3.0 has real implications if you plan to modify and redistribute it. Single sign-on starts at the Pro tier. The self-hosted stack is larger than a single container.
Pricing: Community edition free to self-host, paid cloud tiers. See Plane's pricing.
Best for: Engineering teams who want a modern tracker on their own infrastructure.
Why choose it over Asana: No per-seat pricing and full data ownership. Compare with Kaneo vs Plane on deployment weight and licensing.
10. OpenProject
OpenProject is the most complete open-source option for classical project management: Gantt charts, baselines, budgets, cost reporting, and work-package hierarchies.
Key features: Gantt charts and baselines, work packages, budgets and cost reporting, agile boards, time and cost tracking, commercial support.
Pros: Free Community edition, mature and well documented, real support offering, the only option here with proper budget tracking.
Cons: The Community edition is GPLv3 and reserves single sign-on and custom branding for the Enterprise add-on. Cloud Enterprise plans start at a 25-user minimum. It is a platform to operate, not a small app.
Pricing: Community edition free to self-host, Enterprise add-on priced separately.
Best for: Teams that need Gantt charts, budgets, and cost reporting, and want to own the deployment.
Why choose it over Asana: Comparable planning depth without per-seat pricing. See Kaneo vs OpenProject for the lighter trade.
How to choose
- Cost is the problem. Kaneo self-hosted, Basecamp's flat rate, or Trello.
- You want more, not less. ClickUp or monday.com.
- You must own the data. Kaneo, Plane, or OpenProject.
- You are an engineering team. Linear, Plane, or Kaneo.
- You are a marketing or operations team. monday.com, Wrike, or ClickUp.
- You need portfolios and goals. Stay on Asana. Nothing here replaces that layer properly.
- Single sign-on without an Enterprise contract. Kaneo, or check the free SSO guide.
What it actually costs at ten and fifty users
Per-seat pricing hides how quickly this scales. Rough monthly figures at August 2026 list prices, before annual discounts:
| Tool | 10 users | 50 users |
|---|---|---|
| Asana (Starter) | ~$110 | ~$550 |
| Wrike (Team) | ~$100 | ~$500 |
| ClickUp (Unlimited) | ~$70 | ~$350 |
| Kaneo Cloud | $50 | $250 |
| Kaneo self-hosted | Cost of a VPS, plus your time | Cost of a VPS, plus your time |
| Basecamp | Flat rate | Flat rate |
Kaneo Cloud is the cheapest managed row on that table, and the gap widens with headcount: at fifty users it is roughly $300 a month less than Asana for the tracking most teams actually use. The self-hosted line does not move at all, but it trades the bill for someone's time, which is a real cost that spreadsheets like this one tend to leave out.
Migrating off Asana
Asana has a CSV export per project and a documented REST API, so a scripted migration is realistic. What tends to break is subtask nesting, custom fields, and attachment history.
Export one active project first and import it somewhere as a test. Check that assignees resolve by email, that due dates land in the right timezone, and that comment authorship survives. Keep Asana readable for a quarter rather than cancelling the same week. Kaneo has a public REST API and per-project JSON import, and we will help with a migration script if you open an issue on GitHub.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free alternative to Asana?
Trello's free tier is the most usable of the hosted free plans, and ClickUp's is the most generous in features. If you are willing to run a server, Kaneo is MIT licensed and self-hostable. Most teams that price out the server, the upgrades, and the backups end up on a managed plan instead, and Kaneo Cloud at $5 per user a month is roughly half of Asana's entry tier.
Is there an open-source alternative to Asana?
Yes. Kaneo (MIT), Plane (AGPL-3.0 Community edition), and OpenProject (GPLv3 Community edition) are the main options, and all three can be self-hosted for free. They differ in scope and in what the free build withholds, particularly around single sign-on.
Can Asana be self-hosted?
No. Asana is cloud only, with no on-premise or self-managed option at any tier. If self-hosting is a requirement, you need a different tool rather than a different plan.
Which Asana alternative is cheapest for a large team?
Among managed options, Basecamp's flat rate wins at genuine scale, and Kaneo Cloud at $5 per user a month is roughly half of Asana's entry tier with single sign-on included rather than gated. Self-hosting an open-source tool is cheaper still on paper, because the bill is a server rather than a headcount, as long as you have someone to run it.
Does Asana include single sign-on?
SAML single sign-on is an Enterprise-tier feature on Asana. Google sign-in is available more broadly, which covers many small teams. If you need SAML or OIDC against your own identity provider without an Enterprise contract, check our guide to tools with free SSO.
What does Asana do that these alternatives do not?
Portfolios, goals, and workload views. If a program manager needs fifty projects rolled into one status view, with capacity across people, Asana does that properly and most of this list does not. That is the feature to check for before you move.
The short version
If you use Asana's portfolios, goals, and workload views, keep Asana. That layer is what you are paying for and it works.
If you use Asana as a shared board with due dates, you are paying a coordination-layer price for a tracker. Kaneo Cloud is $5 per user a month, hosted in the EU, with single sign-on on every plan and backups and updates handled for you. Fourteen-day trial, no credit card, and an open-source codebase underneath so leaving is always an option you actually have.