ActiveCollab vs. Asana

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCollab
Score 4.5 out of 10
N/A
Active Collab is a project management solution built around features such as task management, collaboration, time tracking, and invoicing.
$7
per member/per month
Asana
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Asana is a web and mobile project management app. With tasks, projects, conversations, and dashboards, Asana lets an entire team know who's doing what by when, enabling workload balancing. Users can also add integrations for GANTT charts, time tracking and more.
$50
per month
Pricing
ActiveCollabAsana
Editions & Modules
ActiveCollab Project Management
$7.00
per member/per month
Self-Hosted Plan
$999.00
license
Premium
$13.49
per month
Business
$30.49
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCollabAsana
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup Fee$6.25 per member, per month, annual billing$10 per user per month
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCollabAsana
Considered Both Products
ActiveCollab
Chose ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is easier to use and simpler in its setup. It has the right mix of features and simplicity. It's also project-oriented which is important for our workflow. Other tools are often too task-oriented, making it hard to track projects. Overall, ActiveCollab has a great …
Chose ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is 100% better than any of the other tools we have used. We had previously spent thousands of dollars trying out different software that was comparable, but this has been one of the best decisions we have made as a company. It's also the cheapest ongoing option, …
Chose ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab has all the functions that are in these services, unlike them. Not everywhere there is a diagram of gantt. And somewhere the interface is very rewarded and in general looks obsolete.
Asana
Chose Asana
We also use Active Collab to track tasks and issue work tickets. I find this to be a much harder tool to use vs. Asana. It was not in the drop down menue above but its a tool we actively use and I can tell you its hard to find tickets once you have created them and assigned …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
ActiveCollabAsana
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
3.7
13 Ratings
68% below category average
Asana
8.1
163 Ratings
7% above category average
Task Management6.112 Ratings9.1163 Ratings
Resource Management1.08 Ratings7.8137 Ratings
Gantt Charts3.07 Ratings7.348 Ratings
Scheduling1.011 Ratings8.3148 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.01 Ratings8.5118 Ratings
Team Collaboration6.513 Ratings9.0162 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology7.07 Ratings8.57 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology7.01 Ratings8.57 Ratings
Document Management3.08 Ratings8.6138 Ratings
Email integration4.09 Ratings7.8130 Ratings
Mobile Access1.510 Ratings8.4135 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking2.09 Ratings6.16 Ratings
Change request and Case Management1.08 Ratings8.44 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management2.07 Ratings7.365 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
5.7
8 Ratings
26% below category average
Asana
6.8
39 Ratings
9% below category average
Quotes/estimates6.97 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing6.96 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting1.07 Ratings5.51 Ratings
Integration with accounting software7.94 Ratings8.138 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCollabAsana
Small Businesses
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ActiveCollabAsana
Likelihood to Recommend
3.9
(13 ratings)
8.6
(193 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.6
(34 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(22 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
7.1
(3 ratings)
5.0
(42 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCollabAsana
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCollab
Scenarios where ActiveCollab works well 1) ActiveCollab works well for small teams specifically T&M teams.Its invoicing feature is unique & can make your life easy. 2) It is very easy to use & posses good range of filters like on the task list, we can drag/drop tasks, Filter by assignee's,
tasks lists, due dates, or completed tasks. 3) It has some simple but awesome features like when you're in
the middle of writing something i.e a comment on story and get interrupted,
it retains what you wrote. 4) It allows you to tag team members in threads of comments to grab their attention, its really needed when teams are distributed. Thus helping team members to collaborate easily & stay on same page. 5) It integrates pretty well with other web apps like quickbooks , Slack, Trello, HubSpot, Zapier etc Scenarios where ActiveCollab did not work well 1) Tasks can not have multiple assignee's here so if two members are working on same task it did not allow you to reflect that. 2) Sorting capability is not their under invoicing 3) It did not work well for larger teams 4) Search option is not very detailed & you may end up wasting lot of time searching one particular bug or issue.












Read full review
Asana
Asana fixed team issues like project transparency and communication, improved team performance, and enhanced office and mobile productivity. Upper management can solve project management issues quickly, and new hires can use the tool immediately. Asana's surveys simplify research and data collection. Its free trial, free plan, or paid SaaS subscription gives small and large teams the tools and centralized console to work through project tasks efficiently. Due to its complexity, Asana can be overwhelming at first.
Read full review
Pros
ActiveCollab
  • Great for project and task assignments, project workflow and communications.
  • Solid web-based platform that doesn't require software downloads, also includes great mobile platform.
  • Great reporting tools for managing billing, estimating, project workflow and other essential project details.
  • Allows for both the agency and its clients to interact on a single platform using role-specific permissions.
Read full review
Asana
  • Through it, we were able to communicate and cooperate with the rest of the team to complete the work in the required manner and at the appropriate time.
  • Available for free on Android and iPhone.
  • Asana has a simple and easy user interface
Read full review
Cons
ActiveCollab
  • It isn't possible to set members of staff as part time, so if someone is unavailable on certain days you must manually enter them as OOO every single day that they are not in, that other teammates work. Hours also can't be edited individually - everyone is treated as working the same hours in a day, rendering capacity planner useless for flexi working teams
  • Subtasks cannot be assigned their own hours and deadlines, meaning the To Do list view can't be seen in actual date order and capacity planner does not reflect all time allocated to an individual's schedule unless every task is set up as a separate task rather than subtask
  • There is no way to see all tasks of a certain type across multiple campaigns (e.g all copywriting tasks vs all technical tasks) - support team suggested exporting data and making spreadsheets
  • Kanban view isn't available for people's own task lists ('board' view here shows a list)
  • Not possible to have one task be assigned to more than one person
  • Notifications are not sent when tasks are updated, so you have to leave comments and tag people each time
Read full review
Asana
  • Asana is not really a project management tool, it is good for simple projects only
  • UI has some glitches (doesn't save preferences, etc.)
  • Integration with other tools (Office 365, MS Project)
  • No reminders if the working period you entered is on holidays
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Asana
  • Mobile + Desktop capabilities - Able to use it anywhere, anytime.
  • Task management - Easy to view projects and their progress.
  • Time management - Easy to see what elements require time / how they interrelate and manage the project on an overall basis.
  • Company management - Be able to see from a master dashboard perspective where each project is in its stages of completion.
  • Clear communication - It's visually documented who is doing what at what time so that the whole project gets done.
Read full review
Usability
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Asana
It is very user-friendly. Takes a new employee an hour to start figuring out how the system works. That's an important factor. You don't want to encounter the issue where employees need a week to understand how the system works. For example, JIRA, I tried using it for a week and I still don't understand the complicated layout. Asana has a simple interface. Once you see it, you get it type of program.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Asana
Working with Asana on a daily basis
Read full review
Support Rating
ActiveCollab
We have not required support for ActiveCollab as it works pretty seamlessly. We didn't have any issues with using the platform or with any billing issues. The self-service aspect of the platform is robust and easy to navigate so we have not encountered any errors that required assistance from the support team.
Read full review
Asana
I haven't had to use their support so I can't rate it. The fact that I haven't needed them reflects the ease of use of the product. I would recommend that any new users schedule a complete demo of the product to ensure that they are using it to it's fullest (there's a lot of useful features).
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is easier to use and simpler in its setup. It has the right mix of features and simplicity. It's also project-oriented which is important for our workflow. Other tools are often too task-oriented, making it hard to track projects. Overall, ActiveCollab has a great mix of simplicity with good features.
Read full review
Asana
I like how extensive the capabilities are for Asana. With other softwares it seems there are many things lacking. I feel like Asana is also a very user friendly platform and aesthetically pleasing which is important in a modern office. We have many young people entering our workspace and it is important to have software that is ahead of the times in functionality and efficiency.
Read full review
Scalability
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Asana
I used this tool on a daily basis at work and it runs as a solid rock
Read full review
Return on Investment
ActiveCollab
  • Allows our team to stay organized and keep conversations on tasks.
  • The To-Do List email every morning helps me mentally prepare and know exactly what I should be doing as soon as I start work.
  • Powerful and useful integrations save lots of time (Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, Zapier and more!).
Read full review
Asana
  • Productivity - Most of all, it allows me to be more productive and have a good sense of where I am with projects and deadlines.
  • Easy to use - I can make the most of my time to get up (and stay) up and running.
  • Project coordination - Allows me to assign tasks to my interns and communicate directly within the platform to keep the work train moving.
Read full review
ScreenShots

ActiveCollab Screenshots

Screenshot of Dashboard and overview of projects.Screenshot of Multiple task views curently showing a Kanban view of the tasklists and tasks.Screenshot of Overview of all recent activity.Screenshot of Calendar view with task dependencies.Screenshot of Permission settings (owner, member, client, client+).Screenshot of List of available Add-ons.

Asana Screenshots

Screenshot of Product HomepageScreenshot of Team ConversationsScreenshot of Project CalendarsScreenshot of InboxScreenshot of List ProjectScreenshot of Portfolios