Asana vs Jira Comparison of Pros & Cons 2023: Which Is Best?

Asana and Jira are hardly unknown names in the wide world of project management. But which one is better? What are the advantages and disadvantages of either platform? We offer an in-depth Asana vs Jira comparison here. 

Jira is made by Atlassian, which also makes Confluence, Bitbucket and Trello. Jira is their project management and issue tracking system, and has always been very popular with software developers. Meanwhile, Asana’s co-founders met while working at Facebook. 

In this article, we’ll talk briefly about some of the differences between Asana and Jira, then go through a step-by-step comparison of their general characteristics, such as pricing, ease of use, look and feel, and customer support. Then we’ll do a side-by-side matchup for their specific tools and features.

What is the difference between Asana and Jira?

The difference between Jira and Asana mostly comes down to whether you need project management for general purposes or more for development teams and IT departments. Both systems apply agile project management methodologies, which means both systems are great for lean, flexible and adaptive work processes.

As noted in our Asana review, Asana bests Jira in its superior timeline views, as well as lists and calendars. And while Asana is very good for Kanban and Scrum, Jira’s versions of these tools are probably even better. You can take a look at our Jira review for the view from the other side.

Another major difference between Asana and Jira is that Jira has both cloud options as well as an on-premise version, while Asana is staunchly web-based only. This may not be such an important distinction if you have a small team, but when the team gets up in size, it might be a crucial deciding factor.

As for the rest of the differences between Jira and Asana, the devil is in the details. So read on to find out whether Jira or Asana is better for you.

Asana vs Jira comparison chart

Below is a quick cheat sheet demonstrating the results of our in-depth and non-biased dual review of Jira and Asana. You can see the quick stats and some specs.

But if you don’t want any spoilers, feel free to skip ahead to the rest of the article. Conversely, if you check out this table and like what you see, there are quick links to each vendor for further information.

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Asana vs Jira pricing

Jira offers a free plan, and then 3 premium plans, with the highest enterprise plan’s pricing not available from their website. Only with Jira’s enterprise plan does one get unlimited sites, whereas all cheaper plans only allow you to use Jira for 1 site.

Asana offers a free version and two premium plans, with all the pricing clearly laid out. The main difference between Asana’s Premium and Business plans is that the Business plan has more “advanced” functionality for views, workflows and reporting. Asana’s security features are the same, however, so long as you are on any paid plan.

Which is best for you? 

Jira’s most affordable plan is cheaper than Asana’s most affordable plan, but Asana’s Premium plan provides very good value for money. That might make it more appealing for smaller operations looking for bang-for-buck value.

Jira vs Asana free versions

Both Asana and Jira offer free plans which is a great way to test out their basic project management features before committing to buying. Jira’s free plan is good for 10 team members, but you can only use it with one site and one single project. You also do not get any of the good Atlassian analytics with Jira’s free plan.

Asana offers a free version that is good for 15 team members. You get essential project management tools for project management, task management, activity logs, document storage and comments. There are sadly no workflow automation features in Asana’s free plan.

Which is best for you?

Jira takes the top spot when it comes to free plans. Even though it doesn’t offer as many users as Asana, 10 users is usually a sufficient amount of seats on a light plan. Also, Jira’s free plan has workflows and automations, albeit simple ones. 

If you need more seats, however, Asana’s free version might be the ticket. 

Customer support

When it comes to customer support and service, Jira has several tiers. The free version only gets you community support. The standard plan has agent support from 9 to 5 during weekdays, while the Jira premium version offers customer service 24/7.

Asana has community support in their free version which is access to a forum, webinars and guides. At the premium level, Asana’s support is similar with a few added resources. Only with Asana’s Business plan does one get personalized customer support on top of the community support access.

Which is best for you?

Many people still prefer to get their customer service from a human agent, and with Jira, you have more options in the lower-priced packages to get this kind of support. But if you buy a higher-priced package for Asana, these qualitative differences disappear. 

Knowledgebase & learning

Asana has a knowledgebase part of their homepage which is full of useful articles and tips on how to leverage their software. There is a search bar which understands natural language. There are also live webinars, video tutorials, an Asana guide, and special Asana Academy courses.

Jira’s knowledgebase is part of the larger Atlassian products knowledgebase. The interface is less appealing than Asana’s, and the search functionality is less robust.

Which is best for you?

Having your Jira knowledgebase mixed up with other Atlassian SaaS can make sorting through it for answers more complicated. Asana’s knowledge base is a much more streamlined experience. With some experience, however, Jira might feel just as comfortable. 

Asana or Jira for ease of use?

Neither Asana nor Jira are incredibly over-complicated to use as project management software.  Jira’s dashboards, tools and functionality are straightforward, devoid of extraneous bells and whistles. The “Quickstart” bar is a nice touch.

Likewise, Asana users can manage pretty well without spending too much time learning the tools and features.

Which is best for you? 

Overall, Asana is probably the easier to use of the two. That said, Jira is definitely user-friendly as well, and maybe even a bit more clean-cut.

Look and feel

Jira has designed its dashboard and interfaces with clear-cut simplicity and minimalism in mind, and it shows. Boards are clean and cards are easy to read with the most pertinent information up front. 

Asana’s look and feel is not that much worse than Jira’s, but sometimes one does get the feeling that things are a tad overcrowded. Especially with the inbox and messaging, it takes some time to get used to the user interfaces.

Which is best for you?

Jira has a nice, clean aesthetic and overall UX. Not that Asana is ugly, but it could learn a thing or two about shapes and colors from Atlassian. 

Then again, it’s easy to tune out the stuff you don’t use in Asana and get comfortable. So it might be a moot point if you’re not that concerned with design.

Jira vs Asana features & functionality

Now that we’ve talked about some of the broader aspects of the project management software experience for both Jira and Asana, it’s time to explore some of the more specific project management features and tools

Views and templates

When it comes to project management tools, the variety of views and dashboards is a big deal. Kanban boards are very popular, but also necessary are Scrum board templates for managing sprints, calendar views, Gantt charts, and timeline views.

Which is best for you? 

Jira’s template for Scrum boards is ideal for things like managing overflowing backlogs or planning roadmaps. Jira also has decent Kanban boards. Asana offers Gantt charts for making timelines, Kanban boards, list views and calendar views. 

Overall, this category has to be a tie.

Workflows

Automated workflows are a crucial part of any project management system, allowing you to easily set up trigger-based actions to take over repetitive tasks. Many great PM tools offer workflow templates, and in many cases, these workflows are customizable too.

Which is best for you?

This is not an easy category to award top dog status. We’d say Jira’s workflow builder is perhaps more simple and more customizable. However, Asana’s workflow builder is a highly sophisticated feature, with forms, automated tasks, integrated tools and diagnostics.

Task management

The important tools that fall under the umbrella term of task management include the ability to assign tasks to specific team members, prioritize tasks, create task dependencies, add notes and mentions to tasks, and get notifications when tasks are near their due date or completed.

Which is best for you?

Asana has more features and customizability when it comes to overall task management. 

You can get time tracking, set up dependencies, add fields and tags, set assignees and collaborators, add comments and attachments, and make subtasks. There are task management templates as well. 

Jira also does much of this in a cleaner way, but it might not feel as powerful. 

Communication and collaboration

Project management and tasks are often done in teams, therefore good collaboration and communication tools are necessary. These include messaging tools, shared inboxes, and shared document editing. Teamwork features should also include being able to set roles and permissions for everyone collaborating on a project.

Which is best for you?

Jira’s collaboration tools begin with solid project roles like administrator or end-user. There are also more advanced permission features, which let users create or edit projects, as well as allow for outsiders to follow along with project progress. 

Asana has tools for task assignees and approvals among team members too, but Jira is more full-on if you need the extra bells and whistles. 

File storage

Agile teamwork depends on everyone having access to the same files and documents, which means a PM system needs to offer storage space as well as have good tools for accessing and editing the files therein.

Which is best for you?

Even with Jira’s free plan you get 2 GB of storage space for files, and you can get unlimited storage at the upper end of their packages. With Asana, you can easily add files from your computer, Dropbox or Google Drive. 

Use cases

Project management is useful for any and all businesses and industries, though some platforms are more specifically geared for certain use cases. Jira software is famous for being their agile project management system for software development teams. Asana, meanwhile, is used by small teams and startups for a variety of projects, including content marketing.

Which is best for you?

The use cases for each platform have little overlap, but not zero overlap, so application is the ultimate consideration. Software teams can get more use out of Asana, while people outside of software development might lean towards using Jira software. 

Integrations

Integrations are how various software share data and function with one another. It could be in the form of an add-on, plugin or extension, where buttons from one app appear in the interface of another. One can even get an Asana and Jira integration through a connector app like Zapier.

Which is best for you?

This is really all down to what tools you want to use.

Asana offers integrations with almost any other business SaaS you can imagine in a variety of categories. Some highlights include Slack for team communication, Salesforce for marketing, sales and CRM functionality, Microsoft Teams for group collaboration and presentations, Adobe Creative Cloud, as well as a Google Chrome extension. 

Jira also has a library of integrations, with some of the best being between various Atlassian products like Trello, Confluence and Bitbucket. 

Mobile versions

Mobile versions of project management tools are great to have, especially for remote teams. Some platforms just have responsive interfaces to adapt to smaller screens, but it’s even better when they have dedicated mobile apps.

Which is best for you?

Both Jira and Asana have mobile apps for iOS and Android, available for download from the App Store or the Google Play store. 

With both platforms you get real-time syncing between the mobile app and your data in the cloud. Asana’s mobile app gets you task management, an inbox, conversations, advanced searching, portfolio tools, and even goal management. Jira’s mobile apps do most of these things too.

Security

Since most of your project and task data will be stored on the cloud of these various software systems, it’s important to feel confident in the security of your data. Jira, like all Atlassian products, uses industry-standard AES-256 encryption.

It also utilizes Layer Security (TLS) 1.2+ along with PFS, or Perfect Forward Secrecy. Asana meanwhile makes use of 2-factor authentication, Google SSO, and SOC 2 Type II compliance, and their data centers are SSAE 16 / SOC2 certified.

Which is best for you?

From everything we know about using these platforms, and from conferring with other project management pros, we can say security in both systems is tight. 

Were one to get into the granular details about data security and privacy with an expert, one platform might eke out a victory here.

Product limitations

This category is a bit of a wild card, and it can sometimes hold the key for determining once and for all which is better, Asana or Jira. Basically, this category deals with cons, drawbacks, disadvantages, and most importantly, if there are any sorely lacking features or functionalities. The winner of this category is the one with fewer product limitations.

Which is best for you?

As mentioned in other comparative articles, Jira is a bit limiting when it comes to communication tools, though not necessarily collaboration tools. And as Jira specializes in software development and things like bug tracking, it can feel weak if you want to use it for more general purposes. 

Asana, meanwhile, lacks some of the more technical tools that Jira boasts.

Which is better, Jira or Asana? Our final points

The arena where project management apps duke it out is rough and tumble and getting bigger all the time. Picking out two heavyweights from this field is sure to prove a worthy bout. Is Asana better than Jira? Or is Jira superior to Asana? 

Well, at the end of the day, the answer is in the application. Asana is better for general project management, whereas Jira is great for tackling software development processes.

Of course, there are other great project management CRM options like Trello, Basecamp, Teamwork, LiquidPlanner and Monday.com. If you don’t know about those, we’ve got plenty of other project management reviews, alternatives and comparison articles for you to study up on. 

Otherwise, perhaps this Jira vs Asana comparison piece is all you need to make a decision. Now go plan and manage those projects like the boss you are.