Asana vs Slack: 7 Critical Differences [2023 Review]

Effective workplace communication is a major concern in a professional set up especially today. Remote workplaces are now becoming popular and hence there is a need to have tools and means that businesses can collaborate on, stay connected at all times, and manage projects to meet set out goals 

To have efficient communication among teams to complete tasks and conclude projects, tools that cater to this need of the modern organization such as Communication Apps and Project Management apps are required. 

This article will discuss two such apps, Asana, which is a Project Management software that is used to organize projects, tasks, goals; and Slack, a Messaging tool used for relaying information to make collaborations and file sharing quicker, easier, and more secure. It shows why they are relevant for your business, highlighting their strengths, and stating which is best in today’s world. 

Read along to find out in-depth information about Asana vs Slack.

Table of Contents

• What is Asana?
  • Key Features of Asana
• What is Slack?
  • Key Features of Slack
• Asana vs Slack: What are the Differences?
  • Asana vs Slack: Pricing
  • Asana vs Slack: Ease of Use
  • Asana vs Slack: Sign-Up
  • Asana vs Slack: Appearance, Layout, and Design
  • Asana vs Slack: Platform Usage
  • Asana vs Slack: Integrations
  • Asana vs Slack: Supported Platforms
• Conclusion

What is Asana?

Asana is a Workplace Management tool that enables streamlined communication across companies and teams on its dashboard. It is highly customizable and designed to improve team collaboration, enhance the management of projects for a wide range of companies to meet their organizational targets and all this is done in one place. 

With Asana being an Organizational tool, projects can be broken down. Teams can create tasks, delegate work to teammates, specify scheduled deadlines, communicate & analyze the progress of tasks, address issues about problems faced in a simplified manner. It, therefore, eliminates the need for meetings, updating emails, and sharing memos. 

Asana has viable features and tools for reporting to help monitor the progress of projects, file attachments, calendar views for projects and tasks, etc. It can also be integrated with hundreds of other apps such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Zoom, Salesforce, Outlook, Tableau, etc.

Key Features of Asana

• Work, Project, and Task Management: Under this feature, users can set Projects, Tasks, Subtasks, Task Assignees, Sections and columns, etc. Projects can be described as a combination of tasks that are shared among team members. This may include meetings, initiatives, and programs. Tasks are used to break down work into manageable segments to implement, they can be added to projects at any time to help organize your work and aid easy execution. Subtasks are additional tasks that are added under a task; they can be seen as a way of reducing tasks into steps. They go a long way in helping you achieve goals by breaking them down into minute units, and Task Assignees can be referred to as the owners of the tasks and everyone that will be needed to carry out specific tasks.
• Communication: Asana allows teams to communicate by monitoring projects and commenting directly on tasks to state exactly what needs to be done, giving feedback by leaving comments on images or PDFs, discussing a project’s progress, mentioning teammates in projects so everyone is connected in real-time.
• Views: In Asana, views are used to plan your day with a prioritized to-do list, receive and filter notifications on projects, tasks, and conversations you are a part of. You can also use the Asana Calendar View to see tasks and know when your work is due, etc.
• Reporting: Asana’s Reporting feature helps you to set, track, and manage goals. You can set milestones to identify progress and portfolios to organize and monitor strategic initiatives. The dashboard provides custom charts to aid understanding of how the project is progressing.
• Team Management: Asana can help you create teams to organize and manage projects. You can connect members with a shared calendar of conversations, add followers, guests, and give permissions to control the team’s privacy settings. Teams can be based on departments, project involvement, or job function.

What is Slack?

Slack is a Communication Platform that provides a messaging app to connect people to the information they require. It does this by providing a venue to bring people together in the workplace to work as a team, enhancing the way information is shared across the board, and ultimately improving communication.

In Slack, your organization is known as a Workspace and can be divided into smaller units known as Channels. The channels are separate group chats with their members and topics where messages, images, Internet links & videos are shared, making communication between employees easy and seamless. It also has features for private direct messaging with one or several people without anyone else being able to join.

Slack can be synced with external apps such as Google Drive, Calendar, etc., and provides mobile apps for iOS and Android in addition to their web browser client and desktop clients for macOS, Windows, and Linux versions. 

Key Features of Slack

• Messaging: This is Slack’s main powerful feature, its messaging tool. Messages can be sent and received in real-time via an attractive chat display and you can chat directly with others or on channels and threads.
• File-Sharing: Projects can be shared easily on Slack by using the file-sharing feature. Documents and files can be shared, uploaded on Slack by using the paperclip icon on the text box, and files up to 1GB can be shared.
• Voice and Video Calls: Voice and video calls can be done on Slack so you communicate with others. The free plan on Slack does not allow video calls and you can only call one person at a time using voice calls, unlike the other plans where conference calls are possible. 
• Integrations: Slack has more than 1500 integration tools that can be synced with it for your benefit. However, using the free plan will mean you can only integrate 10 tools at a time, and adding more will mean you’ve to delete a previous one when you reach 10.

Asana vs Slack: What are the Differences?

Asana and Slack are not necessarily direct competitors as they are tools used for different purposes. They have both grown over the years since their launch in 2012 and 2013 respectively and have become tools of choice used by many blue-chip companies in recent times.

Based on their growing popularity and usage, we are comparing Asana and Slack in this section of the write-up, using various criteria and mentioning features each platform has to offer:

• Asana vs Slack: Pricing
• Asana vs Slack: Ease of Use
• Asana vs Slack: Sign-Up
• Asana vs Slack: Appearance, Layout, and Design
• Asana vs Slack: Platform Usage
• Asana vs Slack: Integrations
• Asana vs Slack: Supported Platforms

1) Asana vs Slack: Pricing

Asana

Asana has a variety of pricing models which start from Basic to Enterprise depending on your business size. Basic is its freemium package as no money is needed. Premium which is suitable for small organizations that need to create and manage projects is available at $13.49/month, Business plan, ideal for larger businesses that manage projects across multiple teams is at $30.49/month, and finally, to have Enterprise plan which gives you more control and more support, you will need to reach out to Asana’s Sales team. Asana also has an annual pricing model for Premium at $10.99/month and Business $24.99/month and offers a 30-day free trial. 

Slack

Like Asana, Slack also has a Freemium package that can be used by small to medium-size businesses. Other packages include Standard, best suited for small and medium-sized businesses at $6.67/month, Plus which is ideal for larger organizations at $12.50/month, and Enterprise made for large corporations in which you can add up to 500,000 users, you will need to contact Slack’s Sales team.

2) Asana vs Slack: Ease of Use 

Asana

Both Asana and Slack are easy-to-use platforms but Asana is aimed at professional users who can use the app to manage projects and may require more time to discover all its rich capabilities. When logging into Asana, you will need to enter all the relevant data for each project as it is a Cloud application.

Slack

Slack is easy to use with a simple interface that can be used by the most casual end-user for messaging and effective communication, it can be accessed in a matter of minutes. Its appearance also can be altered to suit your basic needs. 

3) Asana vs Slack: Sign-Up

Asana

To sign-up in Asana, you will be required to create an account by providing an email. You can use a personal email but preferably, a work email address should be used so Asana can auto-match you with your team at work by joining an affiliate organization with your domain. 

Slack

Signing up on Slack is similar to Asana as you will need an email but you will be required to add further information such as display name, and also create a profile that will be needed to use Slack.

4) Asana vs Slack: Appearance, Layout, and Design

Asana

Asana and Slack both have similar layouts and appearances with the main screen and left-hand sidebar for navigation. In Asana, the main screen displays projects and tasks, and its appearance can be easily customized to your desired outlook by using a wide range of available workflow templates to meet your specific needs. The background of your workspace can also be altered by using the My Profile Settings option and the background picture can be changed by clicking on your Avatar.

Slack

In Slack, the main pane or workspace is used to show conversations you have using Slack. You can also change the colour schemes which are themes by accessing the drop-down menu on the left sidebar of your screen. Slack’s themes are grouped into categories of clean and minimal, dark and dramatic, bright and cheerful, and accessible and clear.

5) Asana vs Slack: Platform Usage 

Asana

To create a task in Asana, click on the plus sign found at the top of the screen. You can create any type of task as you wish such as finishing a writing job, editing it, or setting it as complete, and change the display from the list-form which is the default to the calendar display. Projects can only be created when you are in a team.

Slack

To send a message on Slack, you can simply click on the names of your team members in the team to which you have been added, or channels you are on then a message box will appear for you to type your message in.

6) Asana vs Slack: Integrations

Asana

Asana helps users to bring emails, storage, files, support tickets, and more apps into the application to help them complete tasks and projects easily. It has more than 100 integrations such as Dropbox, Microsoft Office 365, Jira, GitHub, etc.

Slack

Slack has a huge app directory with over 1500 app integrations and useful Slack bots to help you have seamless communication channels. These integrations include Dropbox, Google Docs, Trello, GitHub, etc. Slack also lets you build your APIs that developers can easily extend to meet your business needs.

7) Asana vs Slack: Customer Support

Asana

On Asana, you can find detailed product help documentation showing the sign-up process, a demo of Asana, and lots more. You can use its live chat support on the web version to reach customer care and if you are a premium user, you can use its priority support option handled by a dedicated account manager.

Slack

Slack is quick at resolving any issue faced by users as it provides detailed and comprehensive help support. Customer support looks at automation issues, collaborations, sharing of files, etc. 

8) Asana vs Slack: Supported Platforms

Asana

Asana can be found on all major platforms such as Windows, Mac OS, Web Browser, Android, and iOS. 

Slack

Like Asana, Slack can also be found on all major platforms such as Windows, Mac OS, Web Browser, Android, and iOS.

Conclusion

This article compared Asana and Slack to show their usefulness and to highlight ways in which you can use them to promote communication, collaborations across your organization as well as manage projects, tasks, and set goals. 

As can be seen from the write-up, both tools have different capabilities as they are not entirely similar but can be effective in their primary purpose of Project Management and Messaging respectively. Deciding to use any will be dependent on your choice and requirement but, combining both of them will go a long way in giving you a single outlook where all your project and communications needs can be handled easily for your maximum satisfaction. 

In this article, you have learned about the comparative understanding of Asana vs Slack. This article also provided information on Slack, Asana, and their key features.

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