Asana VS Wrike Comparison: Which one is the Best for Your Team?

Asana and Wrike are both leading task management software. Both are great project management software specializing in different use cases.

Whether you choose Asana or Wrike for your company or team, depends on your specific use case. In this article, I aim to guide you and help you choose which one is right for you!

Should I use Asana or Wrike?

Asana is an all-around winner, great for traditional project management, small business, marketing projects, and complex cross-functional projects with multiple teams involved.

It doesn’t require any special setup and can be easily used out of the box.

Asana also offers a much cleaner and more beautiful user interface, making it the most user-friendly solution of the two, making it easier to use for first-time users.

Wrike is a customizable project management tool, and more suitable for bigger teams with the technical expertise to customize it as they need.

If you require custom reporting dashboards, real-time collaboration workflows, and customized tasks, then Wrike is the best choice for you.

Try Asana | Try Wrike

What is Asana?

Asana is the swiss army knife of project management, suitable for a variety of use cases and cross-functional teams. 

It allows users to create tasks, track projects, and monitor work metrics. Asana is very popular among professionals and entrepreneurs due to its simple interface and ability to track projects based on various methodologies like Simple tasks (To-dos), Gantt Charts (timelines), KanBan boards, and Calendar views.

Asana also offers many workflow automation and integrations to manage big projects more easily.

What is Wrike?

Wrike is a work management and collaboration tool for anyone looking for an easily customizable solution. Wrike’s mission is to provide a flexible and versatile project management platform with added security for its users.

Wrike can be customized to fit complex projects or agile frameworks. It is great for freelancers, marketing teams, professional services, project management, project planning, and IT projects.

Compare Asana VS Wrike Table

Both Wrike and Asana offer a lot of similar features that every project management solution comes with. The real difference comes in setting it up for your project, the user interface, and pricing.

Here are some of the usual features and functionalities you will find in all similar software:

• time-tracking, 
• workflow management, 
• team collaboration,
• workspaces
• integrations,
• file storage,
• due dates, and
• different views – KanBan, calendar, timelines, Gantt charts, etc.

Here is a quick comparison table to better understand where each tool stands:

Pricing Comparison

Asana’s Pricing 

Asana offers 4 different pricing plans/tiers depending on the features you will need and is billed per user:

Free: Asana’s free plan allows for up to 15 team members and unlimited tasks, projects, and storage, along with its basic views and integrations.

Premium: Asana premium costs $13.49 per month per user and adds more advanced views like the timeline, custom fields, forms, rules for automation, start dates & times, task templates, milestones, and an admin console to better manage users.

Business: Asana’s business plan costs $24.99 per month per user and adds advanced integrations and many project management tools like goals, workload, and approvals.

Enterprise: You need to contact sales to get a quote on enterprise pricing for Asana. You only need the enterprise if you are looking for a higher level of control, data export & deletion, custom branding, and support priority.

*Pricing is taken from Asana’s website on the 28th of February 2023.

Wrike’s Pricing

Jira also offers 5 pricing plans/tiers based on features and per user.

Free: Wrike offers a free plan of up to 5 users that is suitable for small teams and basic features.

Team: Wrike’s team plan costs $9.80 per user per month and allows for 2-25 users and offers unlimited projects, tasks, subtasks, fields, and forms. It also allows up to 50 automation per user per month, unlocks several project management views, and offers additional storage. The most important however might be the Google & Microsoft SSO and the open API.

Business: The business plan on Wrike costs $24.80 and is for teams of up to 200 users and offers a lot of advanced features including their very own proofing feature which allows corrections on working files. It also offers branded workspaces and its own Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to help you manage your projects more efficiently.

Enterprise: Wrike’s enterprise plan offers a number of security and scalability features like 2FA and password policies, as well as customizations on user access roles and types. It also allows for much more automation, file storage, and Tableau integration.

Pinnacle: Wrike’s pinnacle plan offers next-level features for teams that require budgeting, billable hours, bookings, and even more. The pinnacle plan is most suitable for agencies and big organizations.

There is no pricing information for the enterprise and pinnacle plans, you will need to contact Wrike to get a custom quote.

*Pricing is taken from Wrike’s website on the 28th of February 2023.

Wrike’s Features & Capabilities

Wrike is a great option for very demanding teams with very specific needs and comes with incredible features you won’t easily find in other task management tools.

Here are some of its unique features and capabilities:

• Extensive customization,
• Proofing tool,
• Artificial Intelligence (AI),
• Branded spaces,
• OCR document processing,
• Resource management,
• Custom user management, and
• Time tracking / timesheets.

Another very innovative feature is Wrike integrate, a powerful workflow integration to add more customization options on how Wrike integrates with many other tools like Salesforce, Slack, Tableau, Adobe, Dropbox, Google drive, and more.

Wrike integrate is a no-code workflow automation tool similar to how Zapier works.

Wrike Advantages

Here is where Wrike has the advantage compared to Asana:

• Cheaper than Asana.
• Customizable at all levels.
• Advanced workflows & automation.
• Can be branded.
• Better for agile teams.

Wrike Disadvantages

There are also drawbacks to offering such a complex solution:

• Not very user-friendly.

• Needs setup (not out of the box).
• Does not offer unlimited storage.
• Best features are under the higher-paid plans.

Asana Features & Capabilities

Asana is a well-rounded project management software designed to manage projects and help teams collaborate effectively and efficiently. It comes with all the various views a project manager wants, task notifications, integrations, and reporting dashboards to keep track of projects.

Asana is a great collaboration tool as well, with an easy interface for comments and informing teammates of various project updates.

Asana Advantages

Asana is the swiss army knife of teamwork, and here are some reasons to use it:

• Free plan, for up to 15 users.
• Easy to start out of the box without much setup needs.
• Better user interface and ease of use.

• Excels at task management, milestones, and time tracking.
• Multi-project management. It’s great for managing multiple projects and cross-team projects.

Asana Disadvantages

Of course, there are some downsides to Asana as well:

• Expensive plans. Asana has become the go-to project management software and capitalizes on its wide appeal with higher prices than competitors.
• There is a learning curve for first-time users.
• Limited customization options compared to Wrike.

The Verdict

🥇 Asana is the best project management software for most cases.

But, if you really need to customize the tool, offer a branded dashboard for your clients, and get some advanced project management features, then Wrike is the best choice for you.

If you are still not sure which tool is the right one for you, you can the Asana Competitors article which includes more tools like:

• Trello,
• Monday.com,
• Jira, and
• Airtable.

P.S.: Also read about the best Wrike Alternatives to compare project management tools with what Wrike has to offer.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which is better, Wrike or Asana?

Asana is the most popular and well-rounded of the two, but Wrike is better for teams that require a customized solution.

What are the advantages of using Wrike?

Wrike allows for a very high degree of customization and automation of all projects. It can be setup to offer the right reporting for your team and clients, and even offer branded workspaces.

What is the difference between Asana and Wrike?

Asana is a great all-around tool and very easy to use for most teams and average users, while Wrike is best for customizing it to fit your exact needs.

How does Wrike compare to Asana?

Wrike is better when it comes to advanced features, customization, and automation, but all these functionalities make it more difficult to use for the average user.