Asana vs. Jira: which is right for your team?

If you’re in the market for a new project management tool and are stuck between two solid options like Asana and Jira, we’ve collected all the details you need to make a well-informed decision.

Asana, a task management tool, helps teams tackle projects one task and subtask at a time. Jira, a project and issue-tracking software, primarily helps development teams track bugs that arise in programs so that they can be dealt with collaboratively. Both sound like good options, but which one is good for you? Keep reading our complete comparison to see which is most fitting for your needs.

At a glance: Asana vs. Jira

If you’re in a rush, here’s a quick overview of each software’s need-to-know details for you to compare side-by-side. For a more detailed breakdown of each tool, keep on scrolling down.

Asana vs. Jira: Features

While both Asana and Jira are used for project management purposes, their intended uses are slightly different. Asana is focused more on helping teams work on tasks while Jira helps teams focus on fixing bugs. Let’s take a more in-depth look at each project management solution’s standout features.

Asana features

With Asana, teams can collaborate on tasks and subtasks without all the extra features some alternative project management tools offer. This enables teams to cut through the noise and focus on what matters. Asana’s features are built to make collaboration easy and painless, here are a few of them:

1. Task management: Break down projects into bite-sized tasks to make work more manageable. You can assign tasks, break them up into smaller steps called subtasks, group them into sections, set deadlines, add custom fields, attachments, and more.
2. Team collaboration: Asana includes features like multiple timeline and board views to help you get an overview of team tasks, as well as a goal-setting feature that helps teams stay aligned and collaborate on reaching targets.
3. Analytics and reporting: Run reports to see how a team is performing and how tasks are progressing. You can also monitor the status of tasks in real-time to help keep your initiatives on track.
4. Workflow builder: Asana enables teams to set their own custom workflows so that you can create your own work process between teams using automation and visual tools.
5. Automation: Users can create their own automations, which Asana calls “Rules,” to keep teams working efficiently by removing the need to spend time on manual tasks.

Related: Asana work management

Jira features

While Jira is positioned as a bug-tracking app, it still has multiple features that make it ideal for general project management. Here’s a closer look at some of Jira’s best features:

1. DevOps features: Development teams can view repositories, issues, development statuses, and visualize progress all in one unified place.
2. Scrum boards: With Jira’s scrum boards, teams can benefit from an agile project management methodology and deliver projects quickly when working in sprints.
3. Roadmaps: Jira’s interactive roadmap allows users to map out work tasks and dependencies in an organized timeline to help keep team members synced.
4. Drag and drop automations: Building your own automations is simple in Jira as users can drag and drop automation instructions, start from templates, and even connect external work tools.
5. Reports and insights: Get insight into your work, even during a sprint, to optimize efficiency. Jira’s robust reporting allows teams to pull reports for sprints, burndowns, releases, and more.

Related: Jira Work Management

Get started

Asana vs. Jira: Integrations

Integrations are an important factor to consider when shopping around for a project management solution. You likely already use a number of different work tools, so the solution you choose should help you use them all in one place.

A project management tool that allows you to integrate with products you already use will help you minimize the onboarding process and keep your workflow running smoothly.

Both Asana and Jira have many integration options, and they also both offer integrations for each other, so if you can’t decide on one software, you can use both!

Asana integrations

With over 200 apps to choose from, Asana has tons of integrations with some of the most popular work apps, like Trello, Mailchimp, Loom, Zapier, Salesforce, Microsoft apps, and more. Asana’s app offerings focus more on the tools that teams might use in general rather than integrations for more industry-specific tools, like development apps, which is where Jira shines.

Jira integrations

Unsurprisingly, Jira’s integrations are more catered to developers so users will find a wider variety of technical apps. Boasting over 3,000 app integrations, Jira seems to have an app for everything, such as GitLab, Timesheet Tracking, draw.io, Zephyr Scale, Scriptrunner, and others, including many of the popular integrations Asana offers.

Get started

Asana vs. Jira: Pricing

Cost is an important consideration when shopping for software, but before comparing prices, it’s important to know what the price includes. Let’s break down what you can expect to pay for Asana and Jira.

Asana pricing

Here’s a breakdown of Asana pricing for different plans available on the platform:

• Basic: For individuals or teams of less than 15, Asana offers its Basic plan for free “forever,” and includes unlimited storage, access to its iOS and Android mobile apps, and unlimited projects
• Premium: Asana’s Premium plan cost $10.99 per user per month, and grants access to forms, dashboards, and inviting unlimited free guests
• Business: Asana’s Business plan sets teams back $24.99 per user per month, offering advanced integrations with Salesforce and Tableau, customizing forms, time tracking, and advanced reporting
• Enterprise: There aren’t huge differences between the Business and Enterprise plans, except that the Enterprise plan includes User provisioning & de-provisioning (SCIM) and priority support, but the cost isn’t listed and organizations need to contact Asana for a custom quote

Jira pricing

Plans look similar to Asana’s when working with a lower number of users, but Jira pricing works on a sliding scale where organizations pay less per user the more users they have. Let’s look at Jira’s plans:

• Basic: Jira’s Basic plan is also free, albeit only for teams of up to 10, and has a limit of 2 GB of file storage
• Standard: Jira’s Standard plan starts at $7.75 per user per month for up to 35,000 users, and offers customer support during local business hours. It includes 250 GB of storage, audit logs, the ability to set user roles and permissions, and anonymous access, which is used to give customers the ability to view and submit bugs and feature requests
• Premium: The Premium plan starts at $15.25 per user, granting users the ability to archive projects, unlimited file storage, and 24/7 premium support
• Enterprise: The Enterprise plan is available only on annual billing and has a minimum of 801 users with a price tag of $134,500. The price includes 24/7 enterprise support, centralized security controls and user subscriptions, unlimited sites, and more.

Still looking for a Jira and Asana alternative and figuring out which plan is best for you? Check out this page to read all about it!

Related: Asana pricing, Jira pricing

Asana vs. Jira: Ease of use

While neither Asana nor Jira is particularly difficult to use, some users feel it’s easier to use one software over the other. Here’s a closer look at the usability of each software.

Asana ease of use

Asana users note that the software is easy to use without skimping on important project management functionalities. Some users have noted that it takes some getting used to. According to an Asana user on TrustRadius, the software “was not as intuitive to understand and start using as [they] thought it would be.”

Users who are unfamiliar with the platform might need help getting started, but once they get the hang of it Asana is known to be quite user-friendly. Still, users looking for more complex project management solutions have found that Asana lacked some of the tools needed to make for a positive user experience.

Jira ease of use

Overall, Jira is also relatively straightforward to use and offers some great features that make it user-friendly. Users like Jira’s dashboard, which offers a number of widgets and customization options to make it easy to see tasks on deck. Additionally, Jira’s right-hand side quickstart bar helps guide users through basic tasks, making it easy to get the hang of.

Jira does feel more clunky than Asana to many users, with some TrustRadius Jira reviews calling it “complicated” and “cluttered” along with comments on how some parts of Jira’s interface are difficult to understand.

Asana vs. Jira: Customer support

When comparing software options, look at the different ways customer support is offered along with what other learning resources are available. Here’s a look at Asana and Jira’s support options.

Asana customer support

Asana offers the following resources and support options:

• Online support form
• Help center
• Community forum
• Chatbot for basic questions
• Training, webinars, and courses from Asana’s Customer Success team
• Guides, use cases, and developer’s guide for more details

When you submit a form, someone from Asana’s support team will address your inquiry. Asana claims that its team is available 24/7/365.

Jira customer support

• Online support form to submit a ticket
• Community forum
• Feature suggestions and bug reports
• System status check
• Documentation

Jira’s support is available on weekdays during working hours based on where the company’s local offices are located (there are quite a few around the world). For enterprises, there is 24/7 phone support, but for other clients, they’ll need to wait to get a response to their ticket.