Asana vs Slack. Which Tool is Ahead of the Pack?

If you are wondering which tool to use – Asana or Slack – you’ve come to the right place.

This article is a part of our “Team Chat Wars” series, in which we compare Slack to its competitors. Understanding the features of different communication apps helps us in designing a better tool for our customers – a simple, fast and smart Chanty team chat.

This time, however, we compared Slack to the tool which is not much of a direct competitor. Though Asana can be used by team members to connect, basically, it’s a productivity tool. Still, we gained valuable insights exploring Asana features and comparing them to the core features of Slack. Let’s share our findings with you.

Introducing Asana: the project management powerhouse

Founded in 2008 by co-founder of Facebook Dustin Moskovitz and engineer Justin Rosenstein, Asana was developed to help teams better organize, track, and manage their work.  They knew that teams needed a simple yet powerful tool in order to stay organized, monitor progress, and collaborate more effectively. That is exactly why Asana was created. It’s all about making groups of people get things done – to do things such as create tasks, assigning deadlines, or follow the big picture. Asana has grown more feature-packed over the years with add-ons like customizable workflows and other tool integration, which is why it continues to be popular among teams who want to stay at the top of their game.

Introducing Slack: the ultimate communication hub

Slack came in 2013, and it’s safe to say it changed the way we communicate in the workplace. Stewart Butterfield and his team created Slack to make teams communicate more effectively, cutting out those huge email threads for something quicker and more structured. Instead of having to sift through your inbox, Slack gives you channels for a specific topic, so everything is nice and tidy. And it works really nicely with a whole bunch of other tools and applications, so you can have everything in one place. Slack is about simplifying collaboration and helping teams accomplish more in less time – and it’s now a go-to platform for companies all over.

Asana vs Slack: overview

Slack and Asana are almost the same age. Asana launched to the public in 2012. Slack’s initial release happened in August 2013. Through the years, both collaboration tools made quite a journey. Slack recently boasted 32.3 million daily active users with 6 million paid users. While Asana claims to have over 147K customers and about 2 million individual users.

Both – Asana and Slack – are used by many blue chip companies. Asana counts notable clients such as PayPal, Santander, Vodafone, Deloitte, Uber, and NASA. In contrast, Slack is favored by organizations like Airbnb, Capital One, Target, Los Angeles Times, Oracle, and Ticketmaster for their internal communication needs.

As previously mentioned, Asana and Slack solve different challenges, which are productivity management and communication, respectively. Actually, they complement each other quite well. So integrating these tools seems like a good idea for enhancing team collaboration. No wonder, according to Alex Hood, head of product at Asana, roughly half of the company’s customers also rely on Slack for day-to-day workplace communication.

At the same time, Asana, used separately, can still help you chat with your team. Slack, in its turn, has a couple of ways to transform your conversations into actions without using integrations. We’ll explore them below. For now, let’s talk money.

Asana vs. Slack: pricing

Asana and Slack are in the similar price range. Both have the Freemium price models, apart from the paid tiers. The free version of Asana gives you the possibility to add up to 15 members to your team. It also provides you with unlimited Tasks, Projects and Conversations. Slack’s free version is limited to 90 days of your team’s most recent messages and 10 third-party or custom integrations.

If you’re considering an upgrade, the $10.99 per month version of Asana gives you access to unlimited dashboards, advanced search, and a timeline feature that visualizes your project maps.

Meanwhile, upgrading to Slack’s Pro version means unlocking your searchable message history, unlimited apps, and some more benefits.

If you’d like to learn more about the pricing of both tools, check out the information on Slack and Asana official pages.

Slack vs. Asana: signing up

In brief, both – Slack and Asana – are simple to sign up for. Unless you are up for an upgraded version, all you need is an email.

Asana will ask for your work email, but actually, you can also enter a personal address. Signing up with your work email allows you to auto-connect with your colleagues by instantly joining the organization affiliated with your domain.

During the sign-up, Slack requires a couple more steps than Asana does, but not too many. The process of signing up is quite intuitive in both tools, so don’t expect any troubles.

The registration modal boxes in Slack and Asana

Slack vs. Asana: layout and design

The layout of Asana and Slack looks very similar. Both tools provide a left sidebar and the main pane that serves as a space for interactions. In Slack, this area is dedicated to conversations, while Asana focuses on projects and tasks. Both platforms also include a top bar in the top right corner that houses a powerful search function.

Slack workspace

Asana workspace

In both tools, you can customize your workspace. In Slack, you can change the color of your left sidebar in any way you wish.

Options for customizing your workplace in Slack

In Asana, you can change the background of your workspace  “My Profile Settings” to choose a theme you want. As an option, you might enjoy the forest background instead of a usual gray one.

Forest background of workspace in Asana

Slack’s main features (comparing to Asana)

Messaging. Since Slack is primarily a communication tool, its main features are those relating to chat. It enables exchanging messages via Channels, Direct Messages and Threads.

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Asana has no messaging features. But still, it provides a means of communication – so-called Messages – available within Teams, Projects and Tasks. This is a space where you can chat and exchange comments using @mentions. We’ll get back to the Messages feature in Asana later.

Voice and video calls. Unless you are on a paid plan, you can make one-to-one calls only in Slack. Yet, the conferencing feature, even limited, is a valuable advantage for a business team tool.

Video call in Slack

In Asana you can’t make calls directly. So if you use it and need a conferencing tool, consider integrating Asana with GoToMeeting or Zoom via Zapier.

File sharing. In Slack, you can upload a file up to 1GB no matter the pricing plan you are on. In Asana, the upload limit is even smaller – 100MB per file for attachments from your computer. Therefore might be a good idea to share your large files via Dropbox and Google Drive in both tools.

Integrations. Slack has more than 2400 integrations – with nearly every piece of software. Asana can boast of 1500+ with the help of Zapier. In some cases, it integrates into the tools you already use, not vice versa. E.g. if you want Asana and Microsoft Teams to work together, you add Asana plugin to MT app – not the other way around.

As we see, Slack being primarily a communication tool lacks built-in features for managing projects. But if you’re not up to using integrations for some reason, there are still the features that help you handle projects and tasks.

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Ways of managing projects and tasks in Slack

1. Star or pin messages to create to-do items

Track tasks by starring messages you send. As an option, you can pin messages to a conversation. Set an assignee using Mentions. Review starred messages by clicking on the star figure in the upper-right corner of the workspace. Or check the pinned messages in Pinned items at the top bar. When the task is completed, remove the star or unpin a message.

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2. Create a #to-do channel

Create a #to-do list channel to assign and track group tasks in one place. You can add eyes emoji 👀 to say “I’m checking this!” or the emoji ✅ for “all done”. If it’s a personal to-do list, send to-do items to yourself via direct messages.

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3. Create a post with a checklist

Organize a set of your tasks into a checklist and put it into a post. To create a message, click on the “+” sign next to the message box, then select Post.

4. Integrate a third-party app

There’s always an option to integrate Slack with a productivity app. If you are not keen on Asana, there are plenty of other tools you can use including Trello, Jira and Microsoft To-Do.

Asana’s main features (compared to Slack)

Asana has multiple features that basically serve one purpose – coordinating all the work your team does together.

First, in Asana you can set up your Projects and Tasks within your Workspace/Organization. For each task, you can assign a team member, set a due date and attach any relevant files. This streamlined task management helps ensure that everyone knows their responsibilities and deadlines.

Creating a task in Asana

Second, in Asana, you can track your tasks through every stage until they are completed. The list of your Projects, Calendars and Dashboards will help you with this. If you are on a Paid plan, you can also use Timeline to plan projects. It allows creating a visual plan for your project that helps you stay on schedule.

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Slack has no built-in instruments for task management. So it can’t replace Asana without integrations. Asana can’t substitute Slack either. However, it has some features that help you communicate while setting up projects.

Ways of communication in Asana

1. 
   

   Use Conversations feature

   
   

Whether you find yourself in a particular Team, Project or Task, you’ll see Conversations tab in the Workspace. This is where you can discuss tasks or brainstorm ideas, while also using Mentions. Any comment can be posted by simply sending an email. Here you can learn more about Conversations in Asana.

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2. Create a particular project for conversations

Asana does not allow private messaging. However, users share a trick that lets you communicate with your colleagues. Create a personal/private project named e.g. “Private Messaging”. Then set up a conversation for the project and name it after the team member you are contacting. In your first conversation comment, @mention the team member you are private messaging to. That’s it – instant private messaging in Asana!

Exchanging private messages in Asana

You can repeat this for each team member who you want to be able to message in private.

3. Integrate Asana with a team chat tool

Consider integrating Asana with team chat tools. If you are not up to using Slack, try Flip, Ryver, or Twist. Or how about giving Chanty a try? Our powerful team chat has built-in project management tools, and allows integrations with hundreds of apps.

Slack and Asana: integrating the tools

Integration of Slack and Asana seems a legitimate choice if you need to use features of both tools. This will give you the possibility to:

• create Asana tasks from any Slack message
• get project notifications in a Slack channel
• take action on Asana tasks from Slack

Here’s a video with some more information on what you can do by integrating Asana and Slack.


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Wrapping up:

Both – Asana and Slack are the business team tools. However, their basic features differ. While Slack is primarily a team communication tool, Asana is a project management software. These tools can’t really substitute for each other without integrations with third-party apps. Although, Slack has a means for coordinating your teamwork, while Asana provides some ways for communicating.

Making a quick comparison between Asana and Slack, here’s what’s important to note:

Pricing. Both Asana and Slack offer freemium versions, with their paid plans priced similarly. Asana’s Starter plan provides enhanced project management features, while Slack’s Pro plan focuses on expanded communication capabilities. Organizations can choose based on their primary needs—task management or collaboration.

Layout and design. Asana and Slack feature easy-to-use layouts with customizable options. Both platforms allow users to modify their workspaces for a personalized experience, making navigation intuitive.

Main features. Asana excels at project management, with tools for creating projects, assigning tasks, setting due dates, and tracking progress through views such as Calendar and Timeline. In contrast, Slack’s main features revolve around communication, allowing users to chat in channels, send direct messages, and make audio or video calls, without any built-in task management features.

Ways of Managing Tasks. While Asana offers a comprehensive task management system with features for tracking and organizing work, Slack offers more informal methods for managing tasks. Slack allows users to create to-do lists by starring messages, pinning important notes, or setting up dedicated to-do channels, but it lacks structured task management tools.

Ways of communication inside the platform. Communication in Asana occurs through the Message feature within teams, projects, or tasks, allowing focused discussions tied to specific work items. Slack, on the other hand, supports a more dynamic communication style with channels, threads, and direct messaging, promoting real-time collaboration among team members.

Slack with Asana. Since Asana and Slack have different features and purposes, it could be a good idea to integrate them. Then you’ll be able to create Asana tasks from any Slack message, get project notifications in a Slack channel, and much more.

Chanty users can enjoy the integration with Asana too, among other numerous apps.

If you don’t feel like using Asana, we have also come up with a built-in task manager that lets you seamlessly assign tasks to your teammates.

Have I missed something? Feel free to share your experience of using Asana and Slack.