Key Takeaways
- Wrike vs Asana both offer robust features for task management and collaboration
- Wrike provides more customization and enterprise-level capabilities
- Asana is easier to use but less flexible for complex teams
- Consider pricing, storage, customization needs, and ease of use when choosing
As a project manager, keeping multiple priorities and teams aligned can feel overwhelming. When every request seems urgent and you lack visibility into who is working on what, projects end up delayed or over budget.
Both Wrike and Asana aim to solve this struggle with features like task management, customizable workflows, and real-time reporting. But with so many capabilities, how do you select the right software for your business?
This article compares these two leading tools across pricing, integrations, customization, and ease of use to help you decide. By understanding key differences, you can confidently choose a platform enabling greater team collaboration and productivity. Let’s jump in and see what Blitzi has found.
What is Wrike?
Founded in 2006, Wrike is an enterprise work management platform built to handle complex projects and tasks for teams of all sizes. With robust functionality combined with flexibility, Wrike aims to be the centralized software allowing your business to achieve operational excellence.
Let’s explore Wrike’s most powerful and popular capabilities:
A. Comprehensive Project Management
Wrike provides complete support for traditional project management frameworks as well as modern agile approaches.
Within each project, you can:
- Break down initiatives into tasks and subtasks
- Set dependencies so certain actions trigger others
- Assign tasks to individuals
- Set due dates
- Track progress through customizable stages
Configure views like interactive Gantt charts, Kanban boards, spreadsheet-style tables, calendars, and more. Easily visualize and manipulate tasks however you prefer.
B. Resource Management
Balance workloads and skill sets across your teams when you connect projects in Wrike to your organization’s resource planning data. The software syncs project needs to availability automatically:
- Anticipate hardships
- Smooth resource allocation
- Determine optimal team structures upfront
By integrating projects, predicts what resources you require to deliver on time.
C. Budgeting
For project managers overseeing financials, Wrike also functions as financial project management software. Capabilities include:
- Building project budgets connected to scoped work
- Tracking costs against your budget baseline
- Monitoring burn rates and expenses automatically
- Generating budget vs. actuals reporting
Stay on top of the monetary health of any project or portfolio.
D. Detailed Reporting
Wrike really shines when it comes to actionable, customizable reporting:
- Pull insights instantly with 100+ report templates
- Tailor reports to your team’s exact needs
- Include charts, tables, projected completion dates, and more
- Set schedules for automatic report delivery by email
Reporting eliminates bottlenecking preparation and democratizes access to data so everyone makes informed decisions faster.
E. High Customizability
While already feature-packed, Wrike further enables you to customize virtually everything to match your business’ processes, terminology, and branding:
- Build custom tables, forms, fields, and statuses tailored to your workflows
- Design a workspace matching your visual identity from colors to logos
- Connect systems through Wrike’s API and ensure seamless data flow
You won’t reinvent behaviors to fit software limitations. The platform adjusts to you.
F. Proofing
For marketers and creatives, Wrike facilitates focused feedback without ever leaving projects. Teams can annotate and approve documents, mockups, images and videos associated with tasks.
G. Multiple Views
Each user can display tasks or entire projects in their preferred layout thanks to 10+ possible table, card, calendar, chart, and timeline views. Quickly pivoting perspectives allows assessing status, identifying dependencies, and keeping the big picture.
H. Templates
From Agile roadmaps to departmental plans, tap into hundreds of Wrike templates designed by their solutions architects. Jump start your initiatives without starting from scratch. Customizable templates remove excuses for not systematically implementing best practices.
With these features working in concert, Wrike empowers enterprise work management at scale while bringing order to complexity. Now let’s compare it to leading competitor Asana.
Wrike Pricing
Wrike offers plans scalable for teams of all sizes, from free versions up to enterprise-scale packages. Let’s break down what each pricing tier includes:
A. Free Plan
Wrike’s free forever plan supports:
- Basic task management
- Project overview dashboards
- Guest collaborators
- Simple reporting
The free version focuses on lightweight workflow coordination rather than advanced functionality. Still, it’s surprisingly fully-featured for harnessing Wrike’s collaboration without paying.
B. Team Plan
The Team plan costs $9.80 per user/month billed annually. It adds:
- 2GB storage per user
- Gantt chart and timeline views
- Custom fields
- Milestone tracking
- Shareable dashboards
- Single sign-on (SSO)
If you need more robust features at scale, the Team plan strikes the balance of being affordable yet mighty.
C. Business Plan
At $24.80 per user/month billed annually, the Business plan enables:
- Advanced customization (forms, tables, branding)
- Resource management
- 5GB storage per user
- Custom roles and permissions
- API access and automation
- Proofing and task approvals
The Business plan positions Wrike as a customizable hub for managing enterprise work and meeting specialized team needs.
D. Enterprise Plan
Wrike’s Enterprise plan requires contacting their sales team for quote-based pricing. It packs additional capabilities like:
- Unlimited storage
- Additional security controls
- Premium support options
- Custom hosting environments
- Executive reporting package
The Enterprise option transforms Wrike into an end-to-end work OS able to power complete operational coordination for huge global organizations.
With tiers for everyone from solopreneurs to Fortune 500 titans, Wrike’s pricing remains relatively affordable given how robust the platform can become. Enterprises receive dedicated treatment while small teams access functionally-rich plans on a budget.
Now let’s compare and take a look at Asana’s features and simpler pricing model.
What is Asana?
Founded in 2008 by former Facebook executives, Asana focuses on streamlining team collaboration through simplified project management. Rather than extensive customization, Asana believes teams operate best within structured frameworks requiring minimal configuration.
Let’s explore some of Asana’s most popular capabilities:
A. Simple Project Management
Asana enables you to coordinate projects and break initiatives into manageable tasks with clarity around:
- Owners accountable for completing the work
- Due dates for staying on track
- Attachments providing additional context
- Conversations via commentary helping align
The platform makes delegating and monitoring team member tasks straightforward. Dashboards quickly display progress so you identify bottlenecks early.
While powerful in its ease-of-use, Asana purposely avoids feature creep for straightforward coordination. You won’t find financial budgeting or resource allocation features, for example. But for rapidly assigning work and tracking workloads, nothing beats Asana’s simplicity.
B. Unlimited Storage
One amazing aspect of Asana is providing unlimited storage for free. Upload as many documents and files related to work as you’d like—no worrying about caps or costs. The peace of mind helps teams freely collaborate with all relevant materials available when needed.
C. Proofing
For marketing deliverables, creative requests, pitches and beyond, Asana removes the need to juggle feedback via separate systems.
Stakeholders can discuss and perfect work by:
- Annotating on documents, images or videos associated with a task
- Replying with approval or change requests
- Monitoring progress through centralized commentary
Consolidating feedback prevents details, preferences and decisions from becoming siloed across email, chat and beyond.
D. Multiple Views
Project managers working in Asana can display initiatives and their constituent work any way that provides clarity:
- Table view to focus on ownership, dates and priority
- Board view for Kanban-style tracking through workflow stages
- Calendar so deadlines never sneak up on teams
- Gantt-like timelines for scheduling dependencies
- Gallery to assess assets visually
The ability to pivot perspectives keeps you informed however your mind works best. Quick view switching reveals blindspots that additional context highlights.
E. Templates
Industry playbooks help teams employing common methodologies save time. Browse Asana’s templates for:
- Creative briefs to align agencies
- Product launches to support marketing and development
- Remote workshops to engage distributed groups
Leverage templates as starting points when you don’t need fully custom plans built from scratch.
With Asana excelling at no-fuss work coordination plus information centralization, it earns its reputation for intuitively helping teams focus efforts. But does forgoing customization constrain growth?
Now let’s compare its pricing.
Asana Pricing
One of Asana’s biggest selling points lies in its straightforward pricing that avoids nickel-and-diming customers. Three clear tiers exist: Free, Premium, and Business.
A. Personal Plan
Asana’s forever free offering supports:
- Unlimited projects
- Up to 10 team members
- Basic task features (creation, assignment, dates)
- Calendar view
- Simple dashboards
- Popular third-party app integrations
Standout aspects of the free plan include no user count caps and incredible third-party connectivity. You can add guests as well for seamless collaboration at no extra charge.
B. Starter Plan
Starting at $10.99 per user/month billed yearly, the Premium Asana experience includes:
- Unlimited storage
- Gantt-style timeline schedules
- Workload management
- Custom fields, rules, forms
- Milestone tracking
- Advanced search
- Premium support options
For most small to medium sized teams, the Premium tier strikes the ideal blend of being affordable while still upgrading capabilities.
C. Advanced Plan
Asana’s $24.99 per user/month (paid annually) Business plan caters to larger organizations via:
- Advanced administration controls
- Custom branding and colors
- SAML single sign on (SSO)
- Additional security protocols
- Executive planning and insights
Enterprise IT teams managing security and access especially benefit from Asana Business. Though missing the near bottomless customization of Wrike’s corresponding Enterprise pricing, Asana Business smoothly scales collaboration.
For companies needing dedicated support or custom hosting solutions, consult Asana’s sales team. They work closely with global power users regularly through a Workflow Advisory Service guiding large deployments.
Policies generous to subscribers decrease friction for teams to start relying on Asana:
- No cancellation fees and ability to alter plans easily mean growth incurs minimal risks.
- Up to 99.9% guaranteed uptime in their Service-Level Agreement provides assurance Asana takes reliability seriously.
With recently introduced 10 and 100 user packages, pricing simplified even further. Extras like premium support and customized onboarding assist larger groups transition while direct sales conversations serve major enterprises.
Thanks to overly fair policies combined with value-driven packages, Asana makes it affordable for almost any team to achieve more.
Now that we’ve covered pricing models, let’s directly compare how Wrike and Asana stack up across crucial capability categories.
Wrike vs Asana Comparison
When selecting project management systems enabling your teams, differing priorities determine whether flexibility or simplicity warrants higher importance. Does customizability assist your workflow or induce unnecessary complexity? By examining crucial capability categories, we can crown winners to guide your purchasing decision. Let the Wrike vs. Asana showdown commence!
A. Features
While both sufficiently support tasks, dependencies, and collaboration, Wrike pulls ahead with unrivaled features:
- Resource management
- Portfolio budgeting
- Customizable dashboards
- AI-powered work analysis
Meanwhile, Asana intentionally limits scope to avoid option overload. Instead focusing on improving core task coordination over peripheral functionality.
Winner: Wrike for breadth and depth of features enterprise teams require.
B. Customization
When it comes to personalization, Wrike again dominates thanks to:
- Tailorable fields, forms, tables per team
- White labeling workspaces
- API level 3rd party connections
- Building automated workflows
Asana standardizes behavior to curtail complexity. You manage work within their framework versus freely modifying foundational application logic.
Winner: Wrike for limitless customization possibilities benefiting technical users.
C. Integrations
Both platforms offer hundreds of 3rd party integrations with leaders like Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier.
However, Wrike tops Asana with stronger enterprise software synergies fitting complex environments reliant on niche systems.
Winner: Wrike for deeper and wider business system connectivity.
D. Reporting
This arena comes down to use case. Need personalized dashboards leveraging custom fields? Wrike provides unparalleled analytical flexibility perfect for quantitatively-driven directors.
Prefer simple graphical status summaries? Asana makes it easy to glean progress without complications.
Overall Winner: Tie – Depends on audience technical prowess.
E. Time Tracking
For monitoring capacity, nothing beats Wrike’s built-in time tracking allowing individuals to clock effort against tasks. Asana relies on third-party tool integration for similar capability.
Winner: Wrike for managing utilization through a single pane of glass.
F. Storage
Both offer adequate storage for most needs, but Asana provides unlimited space even at entry-level pricing. Wrike only uncaps storage at enterprise scale.
Winner: Asana thanks to removing storage constraints for all users.
G. Pricing
Wrike costs marginally less at the mid-market tier preferred by growing businesses. Unlimited customization does come at steeper enterprise pricing however.
Asana subscriptions increase linearly and reasonably given capabilities added.
Winner: Tie – Team plan pricing nearly identical and enterprise values vary.
Across critical vectors, Wrike wins on customization and robust features while Asana owns simplicity and storage.
Wrapping It Up
When evaluating Wrike vs Asana, neither choice universally beats the other. Success lies in matching strengths to your situation.
If you prize simplicity and ease-of-use, Asana streamlines work coordination without complicating matters. The tool removes barriers between strategy and aligned execution.
Does your enterprise require robust analytics and custom systems integrating deeply? Wrike’s near infinite flexibility enables modeling processes within software rather than forcing behaviors to fit.
Consider what most frustrates your teams currently:
- Assigning work quickly but monitoring progress difficultly? → Asana
- Connecting data and tools technically but finding adoption challenging? → Wrike
Asana and Wrike both provide elite collaboration frameworks transforming teamwork. Identify which limitation currently causes more pain before confidently deciding on the ideal project management platform for your needs.
With insights into capabilities, limitations plus likely affinity, picking the best solution feels less puzzling. Now take advantage of free trials available from both vendors to experience these industry leaders directly.
