If you have been leading virtual teams for any amount of time over the pandemic, you would have most likely heard these two names pop up. Wrike and Asana are two very prominent software solutions that have helped project teams around the world and have grown massively due to the pandemic. With all these new features and expansions, it can be hard to keep track and properly evaluate the best software for your specific needs.
That’s where we step in. We want to help give you a quick and easy overview of the biggest differences between Wrike vs Asana to help you pick the right one for your team and organisation.
What is Wrike?
Wrike is a project management software that is focused on facilitating all your project management and collaboration needs through a holistic business tool. It is an enterprise-level ready, cloud-based tool that aims to consolidate your organisation’s everyday activities into a single platform. Wrike is particularly known for being able to accommodate Agile-based processes and practices with inbuilt features like Kanban boards and story mapping.
What is Asana?
Asana is a workplace management software, available on both web and mobile app forms, that is designed to help teams work better and smarter. Known for its easy-to-use interface – it allows teams to easily plan, manage and collaborate on tasks within their projects. Asana has some great heavy-weight clients like Google, Deloitte and Intel using their services and has an estimated worth of $5.5 billion in 2021.
What are the five big differences between Wrike and Asana?
Now, every project management and productivity software is unique. They come with a whole catalogue of features that you can spend hours breaking down and analysing. Today, we want to make it easier for you by highlighting the biggest differences between Wrike and Asana. We are looking at five main categories:
- Project Management Capabilities
- Usability
- Integrations
- Collaboration
- Pricing
Wrike vs Asana: Project Management Capabilities
Wrike is an amazingly powerful and holistic project management tool for teams, companies and projects of all shapes and sizes. Wrike not only makes collaborating, assigning and managing project tasks easier – it also links all your project needs from resource management to time tracking, budgeting and more in one space. It is built to handle the on-the-ground needs f project teams but also give enterprise-level visibility. To top it off, it accommodates agile-based practices and comes with the ability to customise workflows, identify dependencies and conduct progress monitoring.
Asana is a powerful task management and team collaboration tool with milestone tracking and reporting features available, but it is no fully-fledged project management software. Asana does not come with the capability to customise workflows, manage projects on a portfolio level, conduct risk management assessments or cater to Agile-based practices with Scrum or Kanban boards. Depending on your team’s needs, you may not even require all the fancy bells and whistles and would benefit greatest from the simplicity and practicality of the Asana system.
Wrike vs Asana: Usability
Both Asana and Wrike are strong contenders when it comes to their user-friendly interface. However, by nature of their complexity, the more complex the system – often the harder it is to use. The simplicity of Asana means that it is a one-stop solution that requires little to no training for users to fully tap into its capabilities. With its easy-to-understand task and sub-task system, teams can instantly hit the ground running. While Wrike is known as one of the more streamlined and intuitive project management software, it does require some time to get used to it with all of its tools and features.
Wrike vs Asana: Integrations
A project management software can only be as good as its integrations. Virtual teams are always using multiple platforms and apps to carry out their day to day activities and the ability to integrate those services onto a platform can make massive differences in productivity and efficiency. Thankfully, both Wrike and Asana integrate with many of the most prominently used services in the market – from Microsoft Teams to Adobe and Salesforce and more.
However, users have mentioned that the frequent updates on Asana often leads to loss of connectivity, particularly with third-party app connectors, which can cause configuration issues along the way.
Make sure to check the full list of connectors and integrators for both Wrike and Asana to make sure all your most vital apps can be seamlessly integrated into your chosen software.
Wrike vs Asana: Collaboration
One of Asana’s biggest benefits is its collaboration capabilities. Within Asana, not only can you combine related tasks easily, they can be easily organised, prioritised and delegated easily with notifications, progress updates and more sent directly to the necessary people. To top it off, Asana aims to reduce the need for email communication altogether through its app, significantly reducing the information and communication overload employees often experience when working with virtual teams.
Wrike is no slouch in the collaboration department and shines particularly for Agile-based projects and teams. Wrike comes with several inbuilt features such as Scrum and Kanban boards, story mapping and customised workflow creation that is well suited for Agile teams. Additionally, it has a real-time new feed feature that keeps the team up to date with task progress at all times while also having meeting prioritisation tools to make sure the most crucial items are discussed during collaboration times.
Wrike vs Asana: Pricing
Thankfully, both Wrike and Asana have free and paid versions of their services, so you can get a taste test of their software before making any big commitments. However, if you do decide to take the leap, this is where you will encounter a big difference.
Wrike’s typical paid plans come in four tiers, Professional, Business, Enterprise and Pinnacle, and starts at the comfortable price of $9.80/ user per month. However, Wrike also uniquely offers industry-specific solutions for Marketing Teams and Professional Services Teams that are catered to their specific needs.
On the other hand, Asana keeps it simple with only three paid subscription options – Premium, Business, and Enterprise. It is important to note that each subscription has its own limitations and features. Make sure to check that you have the right subscription for your specific needs.
Wrike vs Asana: Conclusion
Both Wrike and Asana are powerful tools when used for the right type of team and project.
We believe Asana is a great fit for smaller teams that do not run overly complex projects and do not require specialized tools and features. If your team has their other project management activities down pat, keeping your software streamlined and clear of unnecessary features is a critical way to improve your productivity and efficiency.
Wrike overall has better features and would be well-suited if your team or organisation expects to grow in the long-term as it would be able to easily accommodate team and organisational growth. It might also suit you better if your projects are more complex and follow interactive style methodologies.
Wrike and Asana Alternative
What if you want the simplicity of Asana but a handful of the great tools available in Wrike? Lucky for you, you can have the best of both worlds with pmo365.
Pmo365 builds solutions that address your team’s specific needs and requirements that respond to your unique context, practice and processes. We make sure you get what you need, how you need them and when you need them. No more crossing your fingers for a potential update you really need or waiting on consultants to takes weeks to get back to you on your troubleshooting needs.
Some other benefits of pmo365 include:
- Personalised and customized applications and solutions built for your specific needs
- Facilitate Agile-based practices through Azure DevOps and customised workflows
- Solutions built on your tenancy so you are always in control of your IP
- Integration with virtually any external database with Power Automate. Check out the full list of connectors here.
- Iterative deployment of your solution means we grow as you grow
- Consolidating all your project management activities onto a single platform to give you a single-source-of-truth.
- Transparent, stress-free and no lock-in pricing strategy that gives you the most flexibility and control over your solution. Forget calculating individual licensing fees and subscriptions.
- On-hands team of PPM experts who are always ready to troubleshoot any of the problems your face.
If you want to find out more about how pmo365 can help get the best of both worlds, make sure to read more about our services here or talk directly to our PPM experts!
