The best project management tool for you should fit your budget and offer the capabilities you need. With Asana and Todoist, teams can find good features for low costs compared to other project management tools. The tools in both software services can also accommodate large and growing teams that need to work with outside collaborators.

The better choice for you really depends on your project content and budget. If your budget is more important then take a close look at Todoist, but if your project content requires advanced analytics you should pay special attention to Asana.

What is Asana?

The Asana logo.
Image: Asana

Asana is a project management tool with great workload management, reporting and security features. Small, growing and larger teams can use the software for complex projects and for integration with robust data analytics software like Tableau. You can learn more about the software in this Asana review.

What is Todoist?

The Todoist logo.
Image: Todoist

Todoist is a simple project management tool with basic features and affordable pricing. New businesses, freelancers or established companies can save while collaborating in the software. You can find out more about Todoist in this review.

Asana vs. Todoist: Comparison table

Features
Asana
Todoist
Integrations
Yes
Yes
Project management
Yes
Yes
Admin tools
Yes
Yes
Collaboration
Yes
Yes

Asana and Todoist pricing

Asana Pricing

Basic

Basic is Asana’s free plan which comes with unlimited projects, over 100 free integrations and up to 15 team members. Your team will also be able to view projects in different work views like calendar, list and board.

Premium

This plan cost $10.99 per user per month, billed annually. For month-to-month billing, it costs $13.49 per user. Teams have unlimited dashboards, unlimited free guests and access to the admin console to manage members. Timeline work views and extra reporting are also added to keep tracking of progress.

Business

With this plan, teams pay $24.99 per user per month, billed annually, or $30.49 per user billed monthly. Teams can use advanced reporting, in-app time tracking and powerful integrations like Tableau or Power BI.

Enterprise 

Teams need to contact sales for pricing for this plan. The subscription offers user provisioning, security and industry standards for data compliance such as HIPAA. It’s a great choice if your projects contain sensitive client information.

Todoist Pricing

Beginner 

This is one of Todoist’s free plans which offers five projects, five guests and three filter views. The plan is good for individuals testing out the software but doesn’t go far for team collaboration.

Starter 

This tier is also free, and is better suited for teams testing capabilities. It has unlimited users and guests, along with up to 250 collaborators per project. Teams also have their own workspace and up to five active projects.

Pro

The Pro subscription costs $4 per user per month, billed annually, or $5 per user billed monthly. It allows 300 active projects, 25 guests and task reminders. The Pro plan includes unlimited filter views and unlimited activity history as well.

It’s not recommended for teamwork, though, due to its lack of a shared workspace. Although, if you’re self-employeed and work with other freelancers or have a large number of clients, it can help you get started.

Business

In this plan, teams pay $6 per user per month, billed annually, or $8 per user billed monthly. Teams are upgraded to allow 500 active projects, a team workspace and admin user roles. You can have unlimited admins, teammates and guests, as well personal workspaces with Pro plan capabilities.

Feature comparison: Asana vs. Todoist

Integrations

For integrations, both software solutions offer connections with other software to improve your overall experience and workflow. Asana allows integrations in its free and cheaper tiers so you can access features like time tracking. While Asana itself does have time tracking, you can only access it if you have the Business plan. Asana also reserves integrations with more powerful tools like Tableau for their Business plan.

In Todoist, you don’t have access to as many features as you do in Asana, so integration access is more important. Integrations for the software can help with time tracking, scheduling, automation, communication and more. You can integrate with Ganttify, Everhour, Gmail, Outlook and Slack, to name a few. You can learn more by checking out the full integration list.

Project management

When it comes to project management features, Asana has significantly more to offer than Todoist. With Asana, teams have templates, task dependencies, reporting and workload management.

Teams using Todoist can use task reminders and collaborate in team workspaces. You can have unlimited guests and members in its paid plans for more affordable prices than Asana offers. Todoist is better choice if you don’t need an arsenal of features and have simple projects you need to collaborate on.

Admin tools

Both project management tools have admin and security controls. In Asana, their admin console for team management is offered in all paid plans. Todoist only offers security, admin and member roles in their Business plan for $6 per user per month, billed annually. Asana’s paid plans start at $10.99 per user per month, billed annually.

Collaboration

In Todoist, collaboration on projects is one of its main features. You can work with team members managed by an admin, as well as free guests and limited collaborators.

Asana also offers great teamwork capabilities such as in-app messaging, unlimited free guests and templates for resource allocation. Their project management features also include task dependencies to ensure teams don’t start ahead on certain parts too early. This especially helps projects with a specific order of operations.

Asana pros and cons

Pros of Asana

  • Great features for project management.
  • Good for collaboration with free unlimited guests.
  • Extensive controls for security, user permissions and provisioning.

Cons of Asana

  • Pricing can be expensive for new teams and startups.
  • Integrations are limited depending on the plan.

Todoist pros and cons

Pros of Todoist

  • Unlimited free guests in Team Starter and Team Business plans.
  • Two free plans and affordable other plans.

Cons of Todoist

  • Fewer features than competitors.
  • Integrations lack more powerful tools for reporting and analytics.

Methodology

In this article we looked at similarities between each software and investigated how the same features change per plan. While both software have admin and collaboration features, it’s important to consider how much it costs to get the same value. Other important features were considered, and while both products are very different, we still made the effort to consider both fairly despite whether one lacked in certain functionalities.

Should your organization use Asana or Todoist?

It’s important to know one software isn’t universally better than the other. Todoist does not have as many features or as powerful integrations as Asana, but it is more affordable. Asana is not the most expensive project management tool, but it does limit certain features to certain plans, and encourages you to spend more like most software subscriptions.

Todoist is designed as a low budget option with simple collaboration features. Startups, small teams and individuals can collaborate and keep track of their projects while still staying within their budget. Todoist is not the right choice if you need in-depth security, reporting or integrations for data visualizations. Asana would be the better choice if that is your main focus, as it includes more expansive features in those areas.

Before buying, make sure to look at tutorials for both applications, and consider the features and functionality you absolutely need. For more possibilities, you can check out the best Asana alternatives and Todoist alternatives.

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Subscribe to Project Management Insider for best practices, reviews and resources. From project scheduling software to project planning apps, stay up to date with the latest in project management tools. Delivered Wednesdays