Which is best for your business in 2023?

See how two of the top project management software solutions compare over versatility, ease of use, reporting, analytics, and bells and whistles for enterprise users.

When it comes to selecting project management software, teams have a wide range of options, including Wrike and Asana. Both of these tools are fantastic for managing tasks and projects; however, there are slight differences in each project management solution’s approach and features.

We’ll compare and contrast Asana and Wrike based on the features that any of the best project management platforms should have built-in. For this feature comparison, we’ll be looking at the enterprise versions of Wrike and Asana.

SEE: Hiring kit: Project manager (TechRepublic Premium)

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What is Wrike?

Wrike is a popular project and work management tool from Citrix. The Wrike platform is highly customizable, offering everything from custom workflows to custom dashboards. Wrike’s other key features include real-time project management, end-to-end visibility for all projects and tasks as well as robust security elements.

SEE: Wrike review (TechRepublic)

What is Asana?

Asana is a cloud-based tool for simple task and project management. Asana is known for its ability to enable teams to easily track all aspects of a project, collaborate in real-time and manage their resources.

SEE: Asana review (TechRepublic)

Wrike vs. Asana: Features comparison

Head-to-head comparison: Wrike vs. Asana

Task management

Wrike and Asana are excellent tools for managing project tasks, and they’re similar in their approach. For example, both Wrike and Asana enable teams to add tasks, sort tasks by due date, attach files to tasks and set deadlines. Each project management tool allows teams to add subtasks to subtasks, so breaking down work is simple.

Both Wrike and Asana allow teams to view tasks in the way they see fit. Asana offers several views, including list view and boards. Wrike offers views such as Table view, Gantt Chart and Stream.

A key difference lies in their time-tracking capabilities, which is important when managing tasks and resources. Wrike has a built-in time tracking tool. Asana lacks time tracking, so you’ll need to use a third-party integration (Figure A).

Figure A

Team collaboration

When it comes to managing projects, team collaboration matters. Fortunately, Wrike and Asana are both built for simplified collaboration. Wrike and Asana allow teams to comment on tasks, upload attachments for context and create shared team calendars.

These two project management tools also offer more robust collaboration tools such as proofing, which helps keep feedback streamlined.

There are differences between these tools’ collaboration features. For example, with Wrike, teams can edit task descriptions simultaneously via the live editor; Asana does not support this feature (Figure B).

Figure B

Customization

No two organizations manage projects exactly the same, which is why customization is critical when selecting project management software. Wrike and Asana offer many customizations teams can use to personalize their workspaces.

Both project management tools allow teams to build custom workflows. In Asana, teams can use the Workflow Builder, a visual tool for creating automated work processes. In Wrike, teams can use the Automation Engine to do the same.

Integrations

Wrike and Asana offer a huge library of integrations teams can choose from. Popular integrations for Wrike include Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Gmail, Jira and Slack. Popular integrations for Asana include all of these options as well as Adobe Creative Cloud, Tableau, Clockwise and Zapier.

Pricing of Wrike and Asana

There is only a slight difference in price between Asana Business and Wrike Business. For Asana, teams can expect to pay $24.99/month per user; for Wrike, teams can expect to pay $24.80/month per user.

Asana and Wrike: Similarities

The two project management solutions have these features in common, which could make your decision tougher:

• Color-coding to create, design and assign tasks.
• Thanks to the magic of @, you can comment on and discuss projects.
• Want to customize workflows? Both can do that.
• Both offer integration with email platforms.
• You can rest your typing fingers with both systems, because single tasks can be assigned to multiple projects.
• Both do multiple app integrations, including the Android and iOS ecosystems
• Asana and Wrike let you invite unlimited “guests” or “collaborators,” respectively.
• Love your timelines? Both platforms can spin up Gantt-like charts.
• Time tracking — although for Asana, it’s via an integration with Harvest and Everhour.
• For custom integrations, both platforms have flexible APIs.

Pros and cons of Asana and Wrike

Wrike

Pros

• Strong roadmap and time management functionality
• Strong user community support
• Good company service and support
• Highly scalable up to complex projects
• Allows internal and external groups to collaborate
• Powerful workflow automation capabilities and analytics

Cons

• Not intuitive for users new to the software
• Better for more complex workloads
• UX can be a challenge
• Dashboard options are limited
• High-price premium tier means smaller companies will miss the best features

Asana

Pros

• Ease of project setup and integration with clients
• Intuitive, user-friendly interface
• Easy to assign tasks and tagging
• User-friendly tools such as drag-and-drop
• Portfolios feature lets users customize and group projects

Cons

• Powerful features locked in premium price tier
• New users might have a hard time understanding the Asana interface.
• No auto-shifting for related tasks
• Limited scalability for large teams
• No source-code integration

Wrike vs. Asana: Which project management software should you choose?

For teams that value a robust project management tool that still prioritizes simplicity, Asana might be a great choice. For teams experienced in using project management software and need more complex built-in tools like time tracking, Wrike might be the better option.

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