Asana Competitors Analysis

The world of work has changed dramatically over the past few years. Covid brought with it the rise of working from home, and companies had to adapt fast to keep functioning.

They needed new ways to communicate and collaborate, sometimes with hundreds of miles between team members. I remember this time distinctly, as I’m sure you do too; it felt chaotic at first and alien to see my colleagues on a computer screen day in and day out.

Asana, a leading computer software company specializing in productivity and work management, helped my team get through this challenging period.

Thanks to Asana and its competitors, the world of work didn’t grind to a halt (sometimes, it felt like the rest of our lives did during the global pandemic).

While some businesses struggled due to ongoing restrictions, the cloud computing industry saw a big boom because covid accelerated the plans of millions of companies to go digital. In 2021, the industry’s value was around $380.25 billion, and analysts expect it to reach $1,614 billion by 2030.

Within the cloud computing industry sits the project management sector; it had a value of $5.37 billion in 2020.

In this Asana competitors analysis, I’ll explore how Asana fits into the competitive landscape of the project management sector and which firms pose the biggest threat to its ongoing success.

The Bottom Line Up Front

Project management is complex at the best of times. I remember struggling to organize my team before software solutions became mainstream – it was challenging to keep track of everything. If you’ve ever led a project, you can probably relate, and that’s precisely why the project management software sector is booming.

At the forefront of that sector, alongside several competitors, is Asana. With an impressive list of customers, including Deloitte and Spotify, and a $5.2 billion market cap, there’s no doubting Asana is one of the most exciting cloud-based software companies operating right now.

inbox asana

List of Asana’s Main Competitors

  • Monday
  • Atlassian
  • Basecamp
  • Aha!

Asana Business Strategy

Asana is a cloud-based project management software company founded in 2009 with headquarters in San Francisco, California. Its business model provides software solutions for teams to collaborate, communicate, manage, and organize different tasks and projects.

Simply put, Asana provides a vital service for the modern world of work. You can work anywhere, anytime, whether you’re one or one thousand miles away from your team.

Asana uses a freemium revenue model; there is a basic free version available, but to get the full benefits of the platform, you’ll need to pay a subscription. The available payment plans are as follows:

  • Basic – free – including unlimited tasks, projects, file storage, and messages; collaboration with up to 15 teammates.
  • Premium – $10.99/month billed annually (or $13.49 billed monthly) – including timeline, workflow builder, advanced search, custom fields, reporting across unlimited projects, and so much more.
  • Business – $24.99 per user/month billed annually ($30.49 billed monthly) – including portfolios, goals, custom rule builder, forms branching & customization, proofing, and so much more.

Asana already has over 114,000 customers using its software, with 739 spending $50,000 or more annually. The company has already built an impressive list of clients, despite having been in business for over a decade. Customers include the NHS, Sky, Vodafone, Spotify, National Geographic, Gymshark, Deloitte, Zoom, and Accenture.

So, what makes Asana’s business proposition appealing to all these big names? One of the key reasons is that the company achieves customer acquisition and – crucially – retention by implementing a dual strategy. Not only does Asana invest in research and development, but it also values and acts on the feedback of existing customers to provide continual product improvements.

Fortunately, several successful funding rounds have made investment in vital R&D possible. In 2016, Asana raised $50 million in Series C funding; in 2018, it raised $75 million in Series D funding; and in 2018, it raised another $50 million in Series E to invest primarily in product expansion.

Asana went public in September 2020. Today, it has a market cap of 5.20 billion USD.

Another critical pillar of Asana’s success comes from its extensive partnership ecosystem. It has partnered with companies like Microsoft, Google, and Slack to streamline key workflows, making it easier for Asana customers to get things done quickly.

Asana also partnered with Align Technology in 2022 to create Asana Smiles. The partnership offers a customizable workflow for Invisalign-trained doctors in the US, allowing them to track tasks throughout a patient’s treatment.

Since the project management software industry is so competitive, standing out as a trustworthy, knowledgeable firm is vital. One way Asana has achieved this is through its annual Anatomy of Work Index, which highlights year-on-year trends in the modern workplace. Insights like these engender greater trust in Asana as a company.

asana manage your work

 

Asana Competitors Analysis

Asana competes with other successful firms in the project management sector like Google Workspace and Trello.

Monday

monday

Monday.com is a cloud-based project management platform that allows teams to create their own applications. It was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Originally called Dapulse, the company raised $1.5 million in seed funding the year it was founded and continued to raise funds successfully for years. In 2016, Monday raised $7.6 million; in 2017, it raised $25 million.

This money has been crucial to the company’s overall development because it has paved the way for implementing an exceptional business strategy. For example, by investing significantly in research and development, Monday has expanded its product portfolio.

Monday offers management and organization tools for teams of every shape, size, and purpose: for projects, marketing, sales, development, and project management. It also offers its users a wealth of resources, including webinars, global events, and 24/7 support.

Like Asana, Monday uses a freemium subscription revenue model which includes the following packages:

  • Free – $0 – up to 3 boards, 200+ templates, up to 2 team members
  • Basic – $8 per seat/month – 5GB file storage, unlimited viewers, prioritized customer support
  • Standard – $10 per seat/month – calendar view, guest access, automation, integrations
  • Pro – $16 per seat/month – private boards and docs, dependency column, time tracking, chart view
  • Enterprise – price varies – enterprise scale automation and integrations, advanced reporting and analytics

Monday serves over 127,000 customers across more than 200 business verticals in 200 countries. It counts Coca-Cola, Canva, Adobe, Uber, and Unilever among its customers.

Making a startup successful in the cloud computing industry can be challenging, especially since there is much competition. Despite being founded just a decade ago, Monday has become one of the go-to companies for project management solutions, thanks to its broad product portfolio and in-depth customer resources.

In 2021, Monday saw fiscal revenues grow 91% year over year to $308.2 million.

Atlassian

atlassian

Atlassian Corporation Plc is a software company that creates cloud-based products for project managers, software developers, and other software development teams. It is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, and was founded in 2002.

Atlassian has an extensive product portfolio, just like Monday. It includes Confluence, Trello, Bitbucket, Jira, and Sourcetree, to name just a few. Even if you haven’t heard of Jira (project and issue tracking software mainly aimed at developers), you should have heard of Trello.

Trello is a life-saving tool for people who need to be highly organized, like me. I rely on it daily to manage my workflow and keep track of projects, and I know plenty of other marketers who swear by it.

Like its competitors, Atlassian offers various subscription plans to its customers for each of its products, including a freemium option. For Trello, the pricing plans are as follows:

  • Free – $0 – up to 10 boards per workspace, unlimited cards, unlimited storage, 250 Workspace command runs per month
  • Standard – $5 per user/month – unlimited boards, advanced checklists, custom fields, single board guests, 1,000 Workspace command runs per month
  • Premium – $10 per user/month – Workspace views, unlimited Workspace command runs, priority support, admin and security features
  • Enterprise – $ varies – unlimited Workspaces, organization-wide permissions, public board management, free SSO and user provisioning

Over 200,000 customers use Atlassian, and 83% of Fortune 500 companies use Atlassian products. The company has over 10 million monthly active users, which is impressive.

There’s little doubt that Atlassian’s business strategy is focused primarily on Jira service management, and it isn’t afraid to put its money where its mouth is. It acquired Halp in 2020 for its help desk ticketing service, and a year later, it acquired ThinkTilt for its low code form builder specifically designed to improve Jira service management.

Atlassian is using strategic acquisitions to strengthen its position within the industry, and so far, this seems to be paying off. In 2021, the company reported a 29.42% revenue increase from $1.614 billion in 2020 to $2.089 billion.

Basecamp

basecamp

Basecamp is a web software company founded in 1999 with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Initially, the company was called 37 Signals; it used to be a web design firm.

Then, in 2004, Basecamp was born as a solution to the team’s daily problems when they tried to work collaboratively on projects. They released the tool to the broader world, and in a month, they had 200 paying customers; within a year, Basecamp was bringing in more revenue than the original web design business.

Fast forward to 2022, and over 22,000,000 people have worked on a project organized using Basecamp. Compared to Asana and Monday, Basecamp’s clients are primarily on the smaller side, but targeting SMBs has been a successful strategy for the company.

Basecamp contains all the tools teams need to work with clarity, including a message board, to-do list, documents and files, schedule, group chat, and automatic check-in.

The company operates using a subscription revenue model, but fewer packages are offered compared to rival firms. There is just one option if you want to run your business using Basecamp; it costs $99/month and includes every feature, unlimited users, and unlimited projects. You can get a 30-day free trial, and Basecamp Personal is also free but very limited.

Basecamp is valued at over $100 billion. Funnily enough, it has achieved this through simplicity; it does less on purpose, keeping its software pretty much the same. This simplicity is a very different approach to Monday, Asana, and Atlassian, which invest heavily in research and development.

Unsurprisingly, Basecamp has an interesting set of values, including “go slowly or not at all,” “say no to meetings,” “build half a product,” and “underdo your competitors.” 

The founder and CEO of Basecamp, Jason Fried, has successfully grown the business while turning down over 100 investments from private equity and venture capital firms. Some people have dubbed this an anti-growth agenda, but that isn’t the case.

Fried’s approach is undoubtedly controversial, but it seems to work. He believes in creating one product that is high quality rather than focusing on multiple ones, and he doesn’t want to owe anyone anything. He believes in slow, consistent, and profitable growth.

Basecamp brings in more than $25 million in annual revenue.

Aha!

aha!

Aha! is an American cloud-based company that provides product development software for companies in the US and internationally. It was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

Aha! ‘s SaaS tools allow teams to ideate, strategize, plan, build, showcase, and launch new products. Product managers, product development teams, and engineers use them.

The company has over 200,000 users and 5,000 paying customers, including BAE Systems, Bank of New Zealand, and LinkedIn.

Aha! uses a subscription revenue model for its three main products: Aha! Ideas, Aha! Roadmaps, and Aha! Develop. However, users can also get a free 30-day trial. Taking Aha! Develop as an example, you can choose from the following subscription plans:

  • Essentials – $9 user/month billed annually or $12 user/month – allows you to customize everything, define user stories, use kanban boards, and share knowledge via a Wiki
  • Advanced – $18 user/month billed annually or $24 user/month – all features from Essentials plus Integration with Aha! Roadmaps, single sign-on, analytics, and automation

In many ways, Aha! has been ahead of the curve for years. Many companies are only adjusting to remote working after the pandemic, but Aha! has always allowed employees to work anywhere. It is included on Forbes’ 2022 list of the best startup employers – the third consecutive year it has made it onto this list.

Also, in 2022, Aha! Surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. This success is partly due to its extensive partner network, which includes companies like PwC and Adaptavist. Aha! also provides a comprehensive bank of resources for its customers to help them succeed.

Asana SWOT Analysis

This SWOT analysis explores the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by Asana.

Strengths

  • Unique value proposition which focuses on self-organization and speed
  • The company already has a high number of paying customers
  • Extensive partnership ecosystem
  • Several high-profile companies use Asana
  • Financially secure thanks to several successful rounds of funding
  • Software doesn’t require physical manufacturing or distribution, keeping costs low
  • Strong focus on R&D
  • Low-cost company structure

Weaknesses

  • Not an all-in-one solution
  • Product only available in English
  • It takes time to get to grips with the software and use it effectively
  • Overwhelming due to too many features

Opportunities

  • There are still plenty of opportunities to transform the way teams work together
  • Technology is advancing rapidly
  • There is a growing demand for cloud-based project management tools
  • E-commerce has massive potential, which Asana could tap into
  • The company could expand its portfolio to create software for different industries and purposes

Threats

  • Increased competition from all-in-one tools
  • Could be affected by regulatory and legal changes
  • Data protection is a concern, especially with cloud-based software
  • Covid-19 has weakened global economies, giving companies less money to spend on project management software

asana to do

Asana Competitors Analysis FAQs

Question: Is Asana really free?

Answer: You can use the free version of Asana for teams of up to 15 people. Upgrading your account allows you to access a wealth of extra features, and the price is reasonably affordable.

Question: What are the disadvantages of Asana?

Answer: I think Asana is a great tool, but it could improve a few things, such as the lack of time tracking features, limited assignments, and complicated features.

Question: Why is the company called Asana?

Answer: Asana is a Sanskrit word. It means the place and pose where a yogi sits – this position requires marrying flow and form to stay balanced.

Question: Who is Asana’s biggest competitor?

Answer: Atlassian is Asana’s biggest competitor regarding revenue, but all of the firms in this guide have unique strengths and should be considered serious competitors.

asana notebook

Conclusion

The project management software sector is enormous, and competition is fierce. In tech, there’s always something new just around the corner, and the race to be the first firm to develop that new idea or new software makes the industry so valuable; firms are growing and improving rapidly to keep up.

In just a few years, Asana has secured its position as a leading company within the project management software sector. To grow its market share, it must continue to invest in R&D to ensure that the tools it provides are unmatched by any other company.

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