What Is Todoist?
Todoist is a task management software that was developed by its parent company, Doist. Amir Salihefendic is the founder of Doist, and he developed Todoist in 2007. The main aim of developing Todoist was to help people stay on top of their tasks by organizing it via a simple task management system.
Todoist is completely bootstrapped. Salihefendic has declined any sort of funding and acquisition in order to stay in control of the company. Instead of having an exit strategy which is quite a common practice for startups, his goal is to create a product that can help users.
Since its launch in 2007, Todoist has seen steady growth. The software had around 2 million users in 2014, and over 5 million users as of today.
The software is lightweight with simple features to make it intuitive and fast. In Todoist, you can create tasks that are then housed under projects, or in an inbox. You can create sub-projects within projects and break up big tasks into smaller sub-tasks to help organize your work.
It's no surprise that people have been trying to find the best alternative to this popular productivity tool. Although Todoist can get the job done for simple to-do lists and smaller projects, there are other tools available that offer even more features at a competitive price.
If you're in the market for alternative software to help with your productivity, then you're in luck. Here's an updated list of some of the best free alternatives to Todoist.
Features of Todoist
Todoist is a simple task management software that allows you to stay on top of your day by organizing your work with the help of a to-do list. Todoist is lightweight and only has features that are geared to help you make better to-do lists.
You use Todoist by creating tasks, which are then organized in projects or your Todoist inbox. You can create multiple projects to break down your tasks into different facets such as for work and for home. If you want to take your organizational skills up a notch, you can create sections within your projects to organize your tasks in groups.
When adding tasks, you can set due dates and assign them to folders without having to manually click them by using commands.Color-coding tasks based on priority and automating recurring tasks help you to save more time on your tasks.
Todoist helps you visualize your tasks by offering a Kanban board view that you can toggle to. However, this is the only alternative view that Todoist offers. Taskade on the other hand offers 5 different views for you to visualize your to-do lists and projects.
There are plenty of external apps that Todoist can integrate with. One of the uses of this is to integrate with a third-party email app so that you can reply to your emails via Todoist and check it off your to-do list at the same time.
As a simple to-do list, Todoist keeps it simple and doesn't overwhelm you with a lot of features. It is also available on every major platform so that you can update your to-do lists wherever you are.
What Is Todoist Good For?
Todoist is good for anyone that's looking for a simple task management application to organize simple tasks and projects. If you're new to task management software, Todoist is not loaded with a ton of features, making it simple to use with minimal onboarding required.
This means that the software can be used by students, freelancers, or anyone that needs a tool to manage simple tasks. If you want more convenience, Todoist also has templates available to help you get started on your tasks and projects.
However, if you require a tool that provides more solutions, Taskade is the best free alternative to Todoist because it is both simple to use and robust.
What Are Some Limitations of Todoist?
Although Todoist is good as a simple task manager, its simple build means that it is not recommended for in-depth tasks or complicated projects that require more collaboration and planning.
Even though you can assign tasks on Todoist, a more complicated project would require more features such as real-time communication via chat or video to help the team align on tasks.
Todoist also lacks a time management feature to help you track the amount of time you spend on your tasks. This means that although you can use it as a to-do list, you will need another app if you're keen on tracking how much time you spend per task.
This is important especially if you want to use a productivity method such as the Flowtime Technique to help you be more productive throughout the day.
Todoist is great as a simple task manager. However, the truth is that it lacks features that are almost essential for a modern-day productivity tool. For example, as a productivity software, Taskade allows you to take notes, create to-do lists, and even manage complex projects with its wide range of useful features.
It's always handy to have features at your fingertips to help you tackle any sort of task, simple or complex.
How Much Does Todoist Cost?
Todoist offers its software in three different tiers which is the Free Plan, Pro Plan, and Business Plan. Additionally, nonprofit organizations qualify for discounts on Todoist plans.
Todoist Free Plan
Todoist Pro Plan -- $3 per month for each user
Todoist Business Plan -- $5 per month for each user
Taskade
Taskade is a flexible productivity and project management tool that was founded by John Xie, Dionis Loire, and Stan Chang in 2017. The Y Combinator-backed startup aims to help remote teams and individuals get work done faster and smarter.
Taskade is where remote teams get work done. With Taskade, you can organize entire projects and break them down into tasks, change between multiple project views, automate repetitive workflows, collaborate via built-in video chat with your team, and more, via an all-in-one unified workspace.
Get a headstart on your projects and find a suitable structure for your notes via Taskade's versatile collection of templates. Simply choose from a wide variety of templates and add them to your projects to get started instantly!
Taskade is a supercharged productivity app that both individuals and teams can use to collaborate on projects in real-time.
Taskade is the best free Todoist alternative because Taskade was designed with a remote-first approach, allowing teams to collaborate and get work done together virtually.
With Taskade, you can create tasks and visualize them via multiple project views. You can also add collaborators to your Taskade project to collaborate with people within or even outside of your organization.
Get started instantly for free today.
Key Features of Taskade
- Project Views. Visualize your projects in several different ways. Cycle between the List, Mind Map, Org Chart, and Board views to work the way you want.
- List View. This is the default view on Taskade. Create new lists here.
- Board View. This view lets you work horizontally like a Kanban board. Visualize your workflow and tasks in this full-width view.
- Mind Map View. Unlike Notion, Taskade offers a Mind Map view to help you work in a horizontal tree-structured manner and map out what you have in mind.
- Action View. Work in table view and stay organized with your task due dates, and more.
- Org Chart View. Break down larger tasks into smaller ones to help you get things done.
- Calendar View. View all your tasks with due dates in a Calendar View, arranged by Month, Week or Day.
- Real-time Communication. Chat and video conference with your team for free while collaborating in real-time on the same page.
- Zoom In, Zoom Out. Get a bird's-eye view of the workflow by zooming out on all project views, or zoom in to focus on a specific area.
- Fold/Unfold. Fold (collapse) a parent task/bullet element to hide its subtasks. Indent outline elements with ⌨️ Tab and unfold lists with ⌨️ Shift+Tab.
- 500+ Templates. Choose from 500+ templates across 26 categories to improve your productivity and workflows. Customize existing templates or create new ones across your workspaces.
- Multi-Select. Select and format multiple blocks or bulk assign them as tasks to other team members. You can also copy, paste, or indent selected blocks.
- Customize Sub-Tasks. Customize the format of your sub-tasks at individual levels. Choose from headings, numbered lists, shapes, and more.
- Recurring Tasks. Add due dates with start and end times to tasks within your project and set them to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly.
- Move Tasks. Move and copy selected tasks to other projects across any workspace. You'll receive a pop-up notification on completion.
- User Roles & Permissions. Manage collaborators and assign user roles/editing privileges (Owner, Admin, Editor, Checker, Viewer).
- Sort Tasks. Sort sub-tasks/children elements by completed/uncompleted stats or the due date. Task sorting can be accessed from a convenient pop-up menu.
- Search. Search within projects or globally across workspaces and subspaces. Instantly browse and jump between projects anywhere in the Taskade.
- Keyboard Shortcuts. Navigate projects, create content blocks, reorder elements, and complete tasks using a set of handy keyboard shortcuts.
- Team Calendar. Aggregate all tasks and projects in a shared calendar. The Taskade calendar integrates with Google (two-way), Apple, and Outlook.
- Reorder Tasks. Lists in Taskade aren't set in stone. Reorder tasks and find them a new home with intuitive drag-and-drop mechanics.
- Project History. See all the changes made by you and other collaborators. Click on the entries to navigate to the edited items within the project.
- Version History. Taskade saves snapshots of your project so that you can restore a previous version of your project with a single click.
- Export and Print. You can export your projects as plain text or markdown files. Attach them to emails, presentations, or for print.
- Cloud File Upload. Share files directly from Google Drive, Dropbox, Instagram, and Box in your projects with our integrations.
- Breakdown Larger Tasks. Organize your thoughts with Taskade's unlimited hierarchy to break down large projects into tasks.
- Quick Search. Use CMD / CTRL + K to jump between any projects within Taskade web and apps.
For an exhaustive list of Taskade's features, click here.
Taskade Pros
- Free-forever plan is loaded with features
- Real-time collaboration within the same project
- Multiple board views including a Mind Map view
- Free built-in video call and chat function in each project
- Customizable templates to give you a headstart
- Work and chat in the same window, in the same app
- Frequent updates based on user/your feedback and suggestions
- Tabbed workflow for working with multiple Projects
Taskade Cons
- No gantt chart view (yet)
Taskade Pricing
- Taskade Free Plan
- Taskade Unlimited Plan -- Starts from $5 per month
Click here for more information.
Evernote
Evernote is a digital note-taking application that was founded by Russian engineer Stepan Pachikov. Pachikov was fascinated by the way that humans store information, which made him create Evernote to help people organize their thoughts and store more information.
Pachikov started working on an Evernote prototype in 2002. He worked on it for 6 years before feeling confident enough to beta launch the product to a limited audience. After its launch, Evernote grew exponentially and had more than 10 million users by the end of 2011.
Coincidentally, Evernote also became profitable in 2011, with a reported sales figure of around $16 million for that year.
Evernote pioneered digital note-taking and remains one of the most popular note-taking apps today. If you're interested in a more in-depth discussion on Evernote's history from day 1 to what it is today, check out our article on it!
Features of Evernote
In essence, Evernote is best described as a digital notebook with added features. Evernote's concept is simple, you create notes which are then stored inside notebooks. You can add tags to your notes in order to keep them organized.
However, this can get pretty clunky especially if you're a heavy note-taker. This is where Evernote's built-in search function comes into play; allowing you to search for notes using keywords and phrases.
Evernote is also known for its Web Clipper feature. You can download an extension that allows you to clip parts or even entire web pages and paste them into Evernote. Clipped web pages can then be highlighted to emphasize key points, and will also remain stored in the app until you delete them.
You can use Evernote's templates to get you started on tasks that require more structure such as creating a story dashboard or even a monthly calendar to get yourself organized. This can be a helpful feature to help you kickstart your projects.
An interesting thing that Pachikov did with Evernote is that he implemented a feature to recognize handwritten notes. This was a page he took from a tool he created called 'Calligrapher' in his earlier days which recognized handwritten input on devices. In Evernote, handwritten notes can be captured via an in-app camera.
If you're big on keeping organized, you can utilize widgets to reduce clutter on your Evernote homepage. However, this will require you to upgrade your free account.
How Much Does Evernote Cost?
Evernote offers its software in 4 different plans.
- Evernote Free Plan
- Evernote Personal Plan -- $7.99 per user per month
- Evernote Professional Plan -- $9.99 per user per month
- Evernote Team Plan -- $14.99 per user per month
Google Keep
Google Keep is a digital note-taking software that was launched as part of Google Suite in 2013. When it was first released, Google Keep was given good reviews due to its lean design and simplicity. This meant that it was a simple note-taking tool that was also quick.
It was only later in 2016 that Google Keep started to get mixed reviews. Part of these reviews came from users that found it hard to take long-form notes with the inability to format notes and change workspace views on Google Keep. Generally, good reviews for Google Keep come from it being a note-taking app that is simple and accessible.
Users can choose between a list view or grid view on their board. Notes can also be color-coded or customized with an in-built background. Important notes can be pinned to the top and Google Keep's lean design makes it an intuitive note-taking app to use.
You can also collaborate on Google Keep to take simple notes together or share to-do lists with other users.
You can also use Google Keep to collaborate with other users on simple notes and even share to-do lists. The only prerequisite to this is that other users must also sign in to their Google account to use Google Keep.
In 2021, Google discontinued Google Keep's Chrome app. However, the popular note-taking tool can still be accessed via web browsers and other apps.
Features of Google Keep
Besides customizing backgrounds, Google Keep does have a few useful features to help you take simple notes online. However, the software is only equipped with minimal features to keep things simple.
You can transcribe voice recordings into your notes on Google Keep. To do this, record your voice using the app and your voice will automatically be transcribed in real-time. This is a useful feature to have if you get a sudden hit of inspiration while being unable to type out your notes.
If you enjoy drawing, you can add doodles to your notes. Simply draw and save your doodles on your notes within Google Keep. If you prefer to express your thoughts via drawings, then this feature will come in handy for you.
Google Keep does not have formatting options and this makes it hard for you to take long-form and detailed notes. However, you can transfer your notes into Google Docs easily. Although it takes an extra step to transfer notes from Google Keep to Google Docs, you should be able to continue your long-form note-taking process.
You can organize your notes via labels and also use Google Keep's search function to locate specific notes. However, if you're a heavy note-taker, your Google Keep home page will get messier as you take more notes. Unlike Taskade which is more robust, Google Keep does not have the organizational features that Taskade offers.
Being a simple note-taking tool, Google Keep offers a basic collaboration feature. Simply click on your note and add a collaborator to start taking notes together in real-time. However, this will only work for simple notes. This is because Google Keep lacks a built-in chat feature, making it harder for you and your team to align on ideas.
How Much Does Google Keep Cost?
Google Keep is completely free to use.
Any.do
Any.do is a task management software that was founded in 2011 by Omer Perchik, Yoni Lindenfeld, and Itay Kahana. The first iteration of Any.do was an Android app known as Taskos.
After receiving $1 million in funding from angel investors in 2011, Any.do experienced a surge in growth, with over 500,000 users downloading the app within the first month of launch. Two years later, they had over 7 million users and by the end of 2020, Any.do crossed over 30 million users. This makes Any.do one of the most popular to-do list apps today.
On Any.do, users can manage their tasks by creating to-do lists and breaking down larger tasks into smaller subtasks. Unlike Remember The Milk which requires users to upgrade to access the subtasks feature, Any.do offers this feature for free.
The desktop home view is broken down into three sections which are a menu on the left, a task block in the middle, and a calendar block on the right.
Being available across most devices, Any.do gives you the ability to add and check tasks on the go. Additionally, you can integrate Any.do with your device calendar. This would then show all of your daily tasks on your device calendar, ensuring that you're always on top of your day.
There is synergy between Any.do's to-do list functionality and its calendar view, which allows users to easily toggle between the two views and keep track of things. With a simple build, Any.do is easy to use and is used by a large number of users due to its ease of use.
As a simple to-do list app, Any.do would suffice if you're looking for software to help organize simple tasks. You can also collaborate with other users on your to-do lists on Any.do. However, although Any.do is good as a simple task management tool, it lacks features that are required when working on more complex tasks.
Features of Any.do
Any.do is light on features, and that is by design. Being light on features makes it a simple to-do list software to use with minimal onboarding required.
On Any.do, you can create to-do lists and further organize your tasks into subtasks. Doing this helps you to break down complex tasks into smaller actionable subtasks to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed.
Your tasks and calendar are closely knitted together on Any.do. Once you've created a task and integrated your preferred digital calendar app, you will be able to see all of your daily and weekly tasks on your calendar.
If you upgraded your plan to a premium version, you will get access to advanced recurring tasks, which allows you to set a task to repeat at customizable intervals. Taskade would be a better free alternative to Any.do because Taskade allows you to set recurring tasks even on a free plan.
Any.do is available on most devices and this gives you the ability to be in complete control of your schedule. You can choose to be notified of certain key tasks throughout your day. Any.do's seamless integration of its task lists with calendars makes it a unique tool to have in your arsenal.
Once you have created a few tasks, you can change your task list view to show you the tasks you have for the day, a weekly view, and even a monthly view. This lets you estimate the workload that you'll have in store for you.
You can also collaborate with other users on a shared task list. Once a list has been shared, you can then assign tasks and add comments to communicate via the app. This would be ideal if you're working together on something simple such as a shopping list or planning simple events.
How Much Does Any.do Cost?
Any.do has two pricing plans available.
- Any.do Free Plan
- Any.do Premium Plan -- $5.99 per user per month
Remember the Milk
Remember The Milk is an online to-do list application. It was created to help people manage their time better by organizing their tasks and to-do lists.
Remember The Milk was founded in 2004 by Emily Boyd and Omar Kilani. The pair were inspired by Gmail and created Remember The Milk to help other people organize their tasks.
After being developed for a year, Remember The Milk was launched in 2005. The task management tool quickly grew in popularity and today, they have over 6 million users.
With Remember The Milk, users can set to-do lists via a web browser, or via mobile with Android or iOS. Part of its charm comes from it being a simple task management tool without being overloaded with features.
Being a simple tool to use, Remember The Milk works best for people who are looking for a simple to-do list app to organize their tasks. Alternatively, Remember The Milk is also frequently compared to Todoist as both tools have somewhat similar features.
Features of Remember the Milk
Remember The Milk is light on features and is easy to use. The dashboard feels similar to a Gmail dashboard, giving it a sense of familiarity for regular Gmail users. Clicking on 'Add a task' gets you started on adding your first task, which you can then organize by adding tags or putting it in a list.
You can also set the start and end dates for your task. For recurring tasks, there is an option for you to repeat tasks to help you save time. Remember The Milk also has a priority feature, which lets you organize your tasks in order of priority so that you can get the most important tasks out of the way first.
Although Remember The Milk does not offer multiple board views, you can change your task view to show you the tasks that you have for the current day, the day after, or tasks remaining for the current week.
Generally, Remember The Milk is only a to-do list application. It is a good way for you to get started with creating to-do lists and using an app to help organize the simpler aspects of your life. You can also share your to-do lists with 2 other users. This works best for simple collaboration on tasks such as a shared grocery list.
However, Taskade is a better free alternative to Remember The Milk because Taskade offers unlimited projects and tasks for free. With Taskade, you can create unlimited to-do lists and collaborate with as many people as you want on the app, making it a better alternative to Remember The Milk.
How Much Does Remember the Milk Cost?
Remember The Milk offers its product in two simple plans which are the Free Plan, and the Pro Plan.
- Remember The Milk Free Plan
- Remember The Milk Pro Plan -- $39.99 per user per year
TickTick
TickTick is a task management tool that Appest Inc founded in 2013. Appest Inc originally created an app on Android called GTasks. TickTick was then created based on GTasks with added features to help with productivity such as cross-platform synchronization. TickTick was co-founded by Zhimin Chen, and the company's main goal is to help people get more work done.
In 2013, TickTick was launched on web browsers, Android, and iOS. The app then made its way to Windows and Mac three years later.
TickTick is frequently compared to Todoist because both tools serve a similar purpose for task management and as a to-do list. However, TickTick is different from Todoist due to its calendar view that has gotten good reviews from users.
Features of TickTick
TickTick has a light build which makes it user-friendly. It is not loaded on features which means that beginners can get started on using the tool quickly.
On TickTick, you can create to-do lists and set reminders to make sure that you get your work done. You can organize tasks by storing them within folders and organize them further by using tags. Recurring tasks can also be set to repeat so that you won't have to keep on recreating them.
The gamification of tasks on TickTick gives you an added incentive to get your tasks done on time. Completing tasks on time gives you a higher achievement score. If a task is delayed, the reverse will occur.
Desktop and web versions of TickTick allow you to toggle between the default list view to a kanban view. In the kanban view, you can drag and drop tasks between columns in a similar way to the calendar view. The kanban view in TickTick has simple features such as due dates, prioritizing tasks, and viewing task activity.
TickTicks best feature is probably its calendar view. In this view, you are able to drag tasks around the calendar and use time blocking to organize your tasks. Unassigned tasks can also be dragged into the calendar to automatically give it a due date. However, the calendar view is only available for premium accounts, which means that you will have to pay to get access.
A minor but neat feature that TickTick has is that you have the ability to visualize how much of a task has been completed via a task progress bar. One of the reasons that make Taskade the best free alternative to TickTick is that you can check off and hide completed tasks in addition to having a progress bar for your whole project.
If you're a fan of the Pomodoro Timer, TickTick has a built-in Pomodoro Timer in its settings, which means that you can easily get started on this useful productivity method.
You can also collaborate on TickTick by inviting other users to your tasks or by creating a shared task list. However, this feature is very limited as the free version only allows you to collaborate with one other user.
How Much Does TickTick Cost?
TickTick has a straightforward pricing strategy as it only has two plans available, the Free Plan, and the Premium Plan.
- TickTick Free Plan
- TickTick Premium Plan -- $27.99 per user per month
Trello
Trello is a web-based Kanban board project management application that was founded in 2014 by Joel Spolsky and Michael Pryor. It was originally codenamed "Trellis" and was subsequently renamed Trello.
Spolski and Pryor created a prototype of Trello in 2011 and they soon became pioneers of the online Kanban board movement.
After years of steady growth and a 2017 acquisition by Atlassian, Trello is still one of the most popular options for project management software today.
Features of Trello
Trello is a project management software that enables users to manage tasks, organize, and share them across teams. Users create Trello cards representing different tasks and then use the drag-and-drop interface to place these on a Trello board.
Although Trello offers multiple project views, these are locked behind a paywall and you would have to purchase a premium subscription to get access to multiple views. With a free or standard plan, you are limited to the default Kanban view.
How Much Does Trello Cost?
Trello has three pricing tiers available.
- Trello Free Plan
- Trello Standard Plan -- $5 per user per month
- Trello Premium Plan -- $ 10 per user per month
ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management software that was founded by Alex Yurkowski and Zeb Evans in 2017. It is usually used by individuals and teams to organize projects and tasks.
ClickUp quickly gained popularity when it was released to the market and today, it is a company that is valued at around $4 billion. Recently in 2021, ClickUp raised $400 million in a Series C funding round. It is also reported that ClickUp has around 4 million users using its platform. What makes this company so popular amongst other similar tools in the market?
Part of ClickUp's popularity comes from it wanting to be the only productivity tool that users will ever need. Although there are limitations to ClickUp which will be covered in the coming sections below, ClickUp does offer a customizable approach to project management.
This means that individuals and teams of all sizes are able to use ClickUp to increase their productivity. You can use ClickUp to create and monitor personal and group projects, making it a versatile tool to have in your arsenal.
On ClickUp, your Workspace represents your business and is further divided into Spaces that break down your business into its functions such as 'Finance' or 'Marketing'. Within these spaces, Folders containing Tasks and Lists are housed within them.
After creating projects, you can assign tasks to your team members with specific due dates to ensure that your project flows as smoothly as possible. Check out some of ClickUp's features below.
Features of ClickUp
ClickUp is loaded with features to help you better manage your projects. Similar to Taskade, ClickUp offers multiple views for you to choose from including a List view, Board view, Calendar view, Gantt view, and more.
The List and Board views can get pretty clunky if you have multiple tasks going on at the same time. If you're keeping track of multiple tasks and projects at the same time, the Calendar view might be a better option for you. The main idea is to let you choose the view that best fits your requirements.
After creating a task on ClickUp, you will be able to add notes, drag and drop files related to the task, and break down the task further into actionable subtasks. Tasks can be assigned to multiple people, and you can also assign people to be 'Watchers' on certain tasks. This means that they will receive notifications when there are updates for those tasks.
Once you get started on a task, you can set the status of the task to keep everyone on your team aligned on the progress of each task and subtask. For example, you can set the status of a task to 'Doing' whilst having a few subtasks 'Closed' to state that you're midway through said task.
Communication is essential to the success of team projects. ClickUp offers a comments section on each task to allow you to leave comments and chat with your teammates. You will get an email notification when you're assigned a task or when there's a comment on your project, ensuring that you stay updated every step of the way.
Comments can also be turned into an actionable task and assigned to your team members. This allows you to quickly assign suggested changes or additional tasks for your project. Assigned tasks can then be resolved, which gives you a notification so that you can keep track of your team's progress.
ClickUp also integrates with thousands of other apps so that you can work on your project using your favorite tools. Although it might be a hassle to choose from the many integrations that are available, this can be a useful feature for you if you already know exactly what tools you need for your projects.
How Much Does ClickUp Cost?
ClickUp offers its software in a few different packages.
- ClickUp Free Forever Plan
- ClickUp Unlimited Plan -- $5 per user per month
- ClickUp Business Plan -- $12 per user per month
- ClickUp Business Plus Plan -- $19 per user per month
Asana
Asana is a collaboration and project management software aimed at helping teams get more work done.
It was first created at Facebook as a tool to help people collaborate on projects more efficiently. Codenamed 'Tasks', the tool was created by Dustin Moskovitz, who was a co-founder at Facebook, and Justin Rosenstein, an ex-engineer at Facebook.
'Tasks' was created because Moskovitz and Rosenstein both realized that it took more time to plan and coordinate work than actually getting work done. The duo left Facebook to co-found Asana in 2008 when they found out that this was a common problem that affected everyone else and not just Facebook employees.
Mark Zuckerberg was an early investor in Asana, and the company had steadily increased its popularity over time. In 2018, Asana raised $125 million in a Series D and Series E funding round to help the company expand globally.
The goal at Asana is to reduce reliance on traditional emails and sync-ups. Instead, the company wants to provide a common space where users can manage projects and find all the information they need to get work done.
Essentially, Asana wants to reduce the need for emails and meetings so that people can spend more time getting actual work done.
Features of Asana
Being a project management software, Asana is equipped with a multitude of features to help you get more work done.
On Asana, you can create projects and break them down into detailed tasks to help your team visualize the roadmap. Each project workspace comes with a list view to detail the steps needed for the project, conversations to support team communications, a calendar to view the team's tasks, a project progress view for status updates, and also files to share documents within the team.
Within each task, you can assign it to individual members and set deadlines. Add more information into the task description to hopefully prevent the need to have more meetings to align the deliverables.
If the task is dependent on another task being done first, you can set task dependencies on Asana so that your project flows seamlessly. Additionally, Asana has an approval feature for tasks so that you can approve, request changes, or reject tasks.
Communication in Asana is done mostly within its conversations feature. You can send messages to team conversations to update the whole team working on the same project. Team members can choose to follow conversation threads to stay updated, and also create tasks to move things forward from the chat.
Asana collaborated with Vimeo to launch a video messaging feature. With this feature, you can record video messages and embed them in your workspace to send messages to your team members. Video messages in Asana are also automatically transcribed to help you be more productive.
Asana also integrates with many apps including cloud storage solutions such as Dropbox and Google Drive. This enables you to share information from your preferred storage app.
How Much Does Asana Cost?
Asana comes in 4 different pricing tiers which include Asana Basic, Premium, Business, and Enterprise.
- Asana Basic Plan
- Asana Premium Plan -- $10.99 per user per month
- Asana Business Plan -- $24.99 per user per month
- Asana Enterprise plan -- Contact sales
What Is Notion?
Notion was founded in 2013 by Ivan Zhao. It is an all-in-one app that allows you to take notes and manage projects to improve your productivity. Notion was released to the public in 2015 with the goal of ending the need of having multiple productivity tools by being an all-in-one app.
However, it wasn't all smooth sailing for Notion. After its original release in 2015, Notion was unfortunately faced with failure. This came mainly from the fact that its original build was simply not reliable enough, leading to regular crashes.
Faced with this predicament, Zhao and his co-founder Simon Last would relocate to Japan in an attempt to rebuild Notion -- a move that turned out to be a blessing for the team. Rebuilding the app proved beneficial to Notion, as the team became more engrossed in making sure that the software didn't fail as it did before.
Today, Notion's team is famous for making several design iterations to ensure that each feature is tested to the best of its ability before it is rolled out to the public.
Having been on the brink of failure, Notion capitalized on its previous shortcomings and made it into one of its strengths. Be sure to check out our piece on the complete history of Notion if you're interested to learn more about this tool.
Features of Notion
Notion as a software attempts to be a jack of all trades. It combines multiple tools such as project management, to-do lists, note-taking, wiki creation, and more into one unified software. Notion's main goal is to increase your productivity by reducing the number of apps you need to get your work done.
Notion is heavy on features and also supports integrations with other apps such as Google Drive, Trello, Slack, and more. When using Notion, you create content on pages by filling up blocks with content.
Although Notion does have a steep learning curve due to it having a lot of features, it can be a useful tool to help you and your team get work done. Having multiple features also means that Notion is flexible, meaning that you can use it for just about anything.
However, this comes at a cost as users have voiced out that Notion can be complicated to use at times.
What Are Some Limitations of Notion?
Although Notion has plenty of benefits, there are also some drawbacks to consider.
For starters, Notion is not intuitive to use. There is a steep learning curve when using the app due to the fact that Notion tries to be an all-in-one software. Newcomers to Notion will find that the page layout may be confusing. It takes some getting used to before you're able to use the software to your benefit.
One of the common problems that have been reported is that Notion is not good for taking long-form notes. This is because if you use a lot of slashes (/) in your note-taking, Notion tends to start a function with each slash. Constantly deleting these unwanted functions might have an effect on your train of thought.
Even though Notion has features that can allow for good collaboration, proper collaboration tools such as sharing pages and page permissions are only unlocked with a team plan. Notion's free plan limits collaborators to only 5 guests. You'll definitely have to fork out some cash if you want to collaborate with more people.
While Notion does a good job of being an all-in-one app, it lacks a focus on being good at one particular thing. If you're looking for an app to do a little bit of everything, then Notion is probably right for you.
However, if you're looking to do something more focused such as effectively collaborating on a huge project, or even taking detailed long-form notes, then Notion falls short.
How Much Does Notion Cost?
Notion offers its software at four different tiers including the free personal plan, personal pro, team, and enterprise plan.
- Notion Free Plan
- Notion Personal Pro Plan -- $4 per month
- Notion Team Plan -- $8 per month
- Notion Enterprise Plan -- Contact Sales
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