Slack Vs Asana Comparison: Which Project Management Tool to Use

Slack and Asana are two of the most well-known tools for project management and team communication. But, which one is the right project management tool for your business?

In this article, I will be comparing Slack vs Asana from a project management point of view, and help you decide which one is right for you!

Slack is more focused on communication than Asana with features like group chats, voice, and video calling. Asana is more focused on task management with features like to-do lists and deadlines that help teams stay on track.

Depending on your needs, you might want to choose one tool or decide you need both tools simultaneously. The choice will vary based on the size of your team, your budget, and the current tech stack you have.

Should I use Asana or Slack for Project Management?

Asana is the best choice for a project management tool, while Slack is my team communication tool of choice.

Try Asana | Try Slack

What is Slack

Slack is a team collaboration and communication tool that allows teams to chat, share files, and receive notifications either asynchronously or live. You can conveniently start a voice call or “huddle”, share the screen, and take notes.

Slack integrates with many apps through “bots” that help automate many tasks or integrate with other tools you are using.

What is Asana

Asana is a project management software that allows you 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 automations and integrations to manage big projects more easily.

Comparison of Asana Vs Slack

Both Slack and Asana serve different roles as project management software and are difficult to compare side-by-side. However, they can be compared through their similarities.

Every business cares about its bottom line, and pricing is important. Both tools offer a freemium plan, then move to charge based on users and advanced features.

Slack comes with an easier user interface with many hidden capabilities & shortcuts, but Asana’s more complex interface comes with powerful capabilities and customizations.

Pricing Use Cases: What Will Cost?

Compared to Slack, Asana is 50% more expensive per user, but what would this look like in a real situation for a small or bigger team?

I personally use Asana as part of a corporate team, but also for my personal projects, and use Slack for team communication. For my personal use, a free account of Asana is more than enough, while at the company we pay for both.

Let’s go through some use cases and where the freemium model will not work for you anymore.

Slack Free Plan Limitations

Slack’s free plan allows you to add unlimited people to a Slack workplace, really powerful right? However, it comes with some serious limitations:

• Messages are deleted after 90-days
• Audio chats (huddles) are limited to 1:1
• Only 10 integrations

Asana Free Plan Limitations

Asana’s free plan allows up to 15 users to access its basic features, tasks, views, and reporting. The real reason to upgrade is to get access to automations and corporate features that will evolve your work like:

• Custom fields
• Automated workflows
• Advanced reporting: Milestones, Goals, and Dashboards
• Mode views like Timeline (for Gantt Charts)

What would a Small Business with a 10-person team pay?

For both Asana and Slack, a small team will start with a freemium plan and will probably need to upgrade soon. In this case, both project management software would cost nothing.

Slack Cost 10-Person Team (Pro Plan)

The real reason to pay for Slack would be to keep your message history for more than 90-days. Searching for messages and keeping a record of previous work, files, and history for any project is essential, in this case, you would pay:

• $87.5 per month for using Slack for a 10-person team
• $870 for a year if paid yearly for Slack for a 10-person team

Asana Cost 10-Person Team (Premium Plan)

Asana’s top features work better for bigger teams, chances are, your team will need a paid Asana plan after adding the 16th employee. But, in the case you need some specific features earlier on, you would pay:

• $134.9 per month for using Asana for a 10-person team
• $1318.8  for a year if paid yearly for Asana for a 10-person team

Slack for Project Management

Why use Slack for project management instead of another specialized tool? 

Slack is great for direct communication, asynchronously or live chat/calls. If your work requires a lot of communication and sending messages or files to team members, then it’s the right choice for you.

Key Features

Slack channels can help you separate multiple projects or teams, get into quick calls with huddles, and have a professional messaging app on both your desktop and smartphone.

Here are some of Slack’s advantages:

• Instant messaging (Direct Messages)
• File sharing
• Slack Channels
• Huddles Real-time Audio / Video chats
• Shortcuts & commands e.g. /Zoom to create a Zoom video meeting

Slack Advantages

Slack is very easy to get the hang of and is easy to use at all times from multiple devices. It keeps your time connected and reachable at any moment while fostering a sense of community.

• It offers a free version
• It is easy to use
• It provides easy file sharing
• It keeps Keeps a conversation history
• It comes with thousands of app

Slack Disadvantages

While Slack is pretty good for small, remote teams that require real-time communication, it comes short of corporate needs for project management software:

• Project management functions are limited and clunky
• Notifications can be distracting
• Tracking messages can be difficult (as tasks)
• Call quality issues & occasional technical problems (this seems to have improved over the past few months)
• The free plan only keeps messages for 90 days.
• Expensive plans (for what it offers)

Slack Integrations

Slack offers a ton of app integrations to connect with the rest of your tech stack or build automations with bot apps. It even offers an Asana integration.

It also offers a specialized directory for its project management Integrations.

Competitors and alternatives to Slack

If it wasn’t clear up to now, Slack is great for team communication, but not so for project management over some limited cases. Here are a few real competitors of Slack for team communications:

• Microsoft Teams
• Google Workspace
• Atlassian Confluence

Asana for Project Management

Do you love dependent tasks, subtasks, due dates, workflows, goals, assignees, and Gantt charts? (yes, I may be a bit obsessed with the last)

Asana is the most user-friendly project management software out there and for a good reason. It offers a complete solution for small and bigger businesses alike.

You can create multiple projects, control who sees what, and block projects for review. I do love creating a timeline for a project or a content calendar.

Key Features

Asana has a ton of useful features for project management and can help you keep your projects all in one place. You can create multiple projects and control them from the sidebar, or even automate task creation with Zapier.

But, in the core, the features you care about the most will be:

• To-Do Lists (Tasks)
• Boards (KanBan)
• Asana Gantt Chart
• Templates
• File sharing
• Due Dates
• Goals & Milestones

Asana Advantages

Asana is a bit more complex and requires some getting used to, but the learning curve is quite short. The biggest advantage for me is the ability to change views between a simple to-do list to KanBan or the calendar view.

It allows you to build a process based on the management methodology you like. Here are a few more advantages of using Asana:

• It offers a free version
• It is user-friendly
• It offers a clean and minimalist design
• It is excellent for project tracking
• It offers reporting
• It is great for multiple projects/teams

Asana Disadvantages

Still, there are a few quirks and reasons not to choose Asana:

• It only allows for asynchronous communication (users get a pop-up or email notification)
• It requires careful update of tasks
• It can become too expensive
• No time-tracking feature
• Some users may need more time to get used to updating their tasks

Competitors and alternatives to Asana

In this article, we have been comparing Slack vs Asana, to have a true comparison for project management, Asana’s true alternatives would be:

• JIRA
• Wrike
• Monday
• Trello
• Salesforce (some companies use Salesforce for basic project management as it’s already used by most teams and processes).

Read more about Asana’s Competitors.

Compare Jira to Asana.

The Verdict

Both Slack and Asana are great tools to work with but differ in terms of purpose, team size, and style of work.

Asana is the project management software of choice for bigger, well-organized teams with a clear structure and processes.

Slack is a great communication tool that can be used as an alternative to a project management software for flat teams that require constant communication.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the difference between Slack and Asana?

Slack is a communication software while Asana is a project management software. You can use both to manage and communicate tasks between teams, but Asana does a better job at organizing projects, while Slack is better for direct communication between team members.

Is Slack better than Asana?

Slack is better than Asana at team communication, but does not compare when it comes to project management and tracking.

Is Asana better than Slack?

Asana is better than Slack at project management where you need to track tasks, report progress, and manage employees. But, Slack does a better job of enabling communication and sharing between team members.

Who are the competitors of Asana?

These are the alternatives and competitors of Asana:

• JIRA
• Wrike
• Monday
• Trello