Asana

Overview

Asana was founded in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz, a Facebook co-founder, and Justin Rosenstein, a former Google and Facebook engineer, after the pair built an internal task-tracking tool at Facebook and set out to build a standalone product around the same ideas. It launched publicly in 2012 and grew into one of the most widely used work management platforms, expanding well beyond simple to-do lists into multiple project views, cross-team workflow automation, and portfolio-level reporting for larger organizations. The company went public via a direct listing on the NYSE in 2020.

Asana organizes work into projects containing tasks, which can be viewed as lists, kanban boards, timelines (Gantt-style), or calendars, with dependencies, custom fields, and automation rules layered on top. It is closed source and cloud-hosted only, with no self-hosted or on-premises option, and is distributed on a freemium model: a free tier covers individuals and very small teams, with paid tiers unlocking timeline views, advanced reporting, and workflow automation (“Asana Rules”) needed by larger teams.

Key Features

• Multiple project views — Lists, kanban boards, timelines, and calendars for the same underlying tasks
• Dependencies and milestones — Task dependencies and project milestones for tracking multi-step workflows
• Custom fields and forms — Structured intake forms and configurable fields for tracking project-specific data
• Automation (Asana Rules) — Rule-based automation for status updates, assignments, and notifications
• Portfolios and goals — Cross-project reporting and goal tracking for leadership visibility
• Integrations — Connectors for Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and dozens of other tools

Use Cases

• Team task tracking — Assigning and tracking work across individuals and teams
• Cross-functional project management — Coordinating marketing, product, and operations work in one workspace
• Portfolio reporting — Leadership-level visibility across multiple concurrent projects
• Workflow automation — Reducing manual status updates and handoffs with rule-based automation

Who It’s For

Asana is aimed at teams and organizations that need more structure than a simple kanban board — multiple project views, dependencies, and cross-team reporting — without managing their own infrastructure. It’s distributed on a freemium model with paid tiers required for larger teams needing timelines, advanced reporting, and automation.