The Cost of "Free" Cloud PM
Asana's free tier hooks teams with 15 users and basic features, then charges $10.99/user/month the moment you need timelines, custom fields, or advanced reporting. A 20-person team pays $2,638/year — and all your project data lives on Asana's servers. Leantime offers Kanban boards, Gantt timelines, time tracking, and idea management with zero per-user fees and complete data ownership.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Leantime (Self-Hosted) | Asana (Cloud) |
|---|---|---|
| Kanban boards | Yes | Yes |
| Gantt/timeline | Yes | Starter plan ($10.99/user) |
| Time tracking | Built-in | Requires integration (Harvest, etc.) |
| Idea boards | Yes (built-in) | No (use third-party) |
| Retrospectives | Yes | No |
| Custom fields | Yes | Starter plan+ |
| Portfolios | No | Business plan ($24.99/user) |
| Workload management | No | Business plan+ |
| Goals/OKRs | No | Business plan+ |
| Forms | No | Starter plan+ |
| Integrations | Limited (Slack, email) | 200+ (Slack, Jira, Salesforce, etc.) |
| API | REST API | REST API + webhooks |
| SSO/SAML | No (reverse proxy auth) | Business plan+ |
| Mobile app | PWA | Native iOS/Android |
| Automation rules | No | Starter plan+ |
| User limit | Unlimited | 15 (free), unlimited (paid) |
| Self-hosted | Yes (Docker) | No |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary |
Quick Verdict
Leantime replaces Asana well for small teams that need boards, timelines, and time tracking without per-user pricing. Asana wins when you need automation rules, 200+ integrations, advanced reporting, or manage a large organization across multiple departments. The deciding factor is team size and budget: if per-user pricing hurts, Leantime is the escape route.
Installation Complexity
Leantime deploys with Docker in under 5 minutes:
services:
leantime:
image: leantime/leantime:3.7.3
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "8080:8080"
environment:
LEAN_DB_HOST: db
LEAN_DB_USER: leantime
LEAN_DB_PASSWORD: your-strong-password
LEAN_DB_DATABASE: leantime
LEAN_SESSION_PASSWORD: your-session-secret
depends_on:
- db
db:
image: mysql:8.4
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
MYSQL_DATABASE: leantime
MYSQL_USER: leantime
MYSQL_PASSWORD: your-strong-password
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: your-root-password
volumes:
- db-data:/var/lib/mysql
volumes:
db-data:
Asana requires no installation — it's SaaS. Sign up and start using it. But you give up data control, face vendor lock-in, and accept their pricing structure.
Pricing
| Scenario | Leantime | Asana |
|---|---|---|
| 5 users, 1 year | $0 (self-hosted) + ~$60 VPS | $660 (Starter) |
| 15 users, 1 year | $0 + ~$60 VPS | $1,979 (Starter) |
| 50 users, 1 year | $0 + ~$120 VPS | $6,594 (Starter) |
| 50 users, timelines + reporting | $0 + ~$120 VPS | $14,994 (Advanced) |
| Data ownership | Full | None |
VPS cost assumes a small Hetzner or DigitalOcean instance ($5-10/month). Leantime's self-hosted edition is genuinely free with no feature gating based on team size.
Performance and Resource Usage
| Metric | Leantime | Asana |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Your server | Asana's cloud |
| Min RAM | 512 MB | N/A |
| Uptime responsibility | You | Asana (99.9% SLA on Business) |
| Latency | Depends on your server | Optimized CDN |
| Offline access | No (web app) | Limited (mobile app caching) |
Leantime is lightweight — runs on a $5/month VPS. The trade-off is you're responsible for uptime, backups, and security updates. Asana handles all of that.
Community and Support
| Dimension | Leantime | Asana |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ~4,500 | N/A (proprietary) |
| Support channels | GitHub issues, community forum | Email, chat (paid plans) |
| Documentation | Good | Excellent |
| Training | Self-serve docs | Asana Academy |
| Paid support | Cloud plans | Business + Enterprise |
Asana's support infrastructure is larger and more polished. Leantime's community is smaller but responsive. For self-hosted deployments, you're largely on your own — which is fine for teams with basic Docker skills.
Use Cases
Choose Leantime If...
- Per-user pricing is unacceptable for your team
- Data sovereignty matters (compliance, client work, internal IP)
- Time tracking is a core requirement (Asana needs third-party add-ons)
- Your team is under 50 people and needs boards + timelines
- You want idea boards and retrospectives built in
- You have basic Docker/server management skills
Choose Asana If...
- You need 200+ integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, etc.)
- Automation rules and workflows are essential
- You manage multiple departments with portfolios and workload balancing
- Mobile native apps are a hard requirement
- Your team expects enterprise-grade uptime SLAs
- You'd rather pay per user than manage infrastructure
Final Verdict
If self-hosted project management with zero per-user fees matters more than a massive integration ecosystem, Leantime is the practical Asana alternative. It covers the core PM workflow — boards, timelines, time tracking — without the escalating costs. Asana is the stronger product feature-for-feature, especially for large organizations, but Leantime handles 80% of what most small teams need at 0% of the recurring cost.
FAQ
Can I migrate from Asana to Leantime?
There's no automated migration tool. Export your Asana data as CSV (Project → Export), then import tasks manually into Leantime. Task names, descriptions, and due dates transfer easily; automations and custom fields don't.
Does Leantime have a mobile app?
Leantime is a progressive web app (PWA) — add it to your home screen on iOS or Android. It works well but doesn't have the native polish of Asana's dedicated mobile apps.
How does Leantime handle user management?
Leantime has built-in user management with roles (admin, manager, editor, viewer). Users are invited via email. There's no SSO/SAML in the open-source version, but you can add authentication at the reverse proxy level.
Is Leantime suitable for client-facing project management?
Yes. Leantime supports multiple projects with role-based access. Create a project per client, invite client users with limited permissions, and use the timeline view for status reporting.
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