When comparing Asana vs Nirvanahq, the Slant community recommends Nirvanahq for most people. In the question“What are the best GTD apps?” Nirvanahq is ranked 3rd while Asana is ranked 15th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Powerful team collaboration features
Asana has fantastic mechanisms for dealing with team collaboration. Not only can tasks be assigned to team members, but Asana lets users follow tasks and use hyperlinks to refer to team members within a task.
Pro Free for up to 15 users
Pro Simple workflow
The Asana task workflow within a project is broken down into "Today," "Upcoming," and "Later." The tasks themselves have the status of either done or not done. There is also a subtask feature to group tasks together. Tasks can be assigned to other team members and are stored in the "Inbox" view for processing. This replaces email for some team communication.
Pro CSV export and print
Pro Very polished interface
Teams can have private (only visible to project members) and public (visible to anyone in the team) projects. Each member can also have their own personal projects.
Tasks can be viewed in list and calendar views. It's possible to display only the tasks assigned to the user or tasks organized by project or team. Single tasks can exist in multiple projects. Lists of tasks can be divided into sections and organized in many different ways – tasks that still have to be done, tasks that have been completed, by due date, by assignee, by popularity, etc.
Expanding a task will allow adding things like subtasks, tags, and attachments, as well as comments. Users can also subscribe to a task via RSS from this view. There's a separate view specifically for attachments.
Search lets you find what you’re looking for quickly.
Pro Tagging system allows easily filtering tasks
The tagging system enables project managers to easily filter tasks.
Pro Provides lots of help for getting started
There are many videos, tutorials, and reference documents to help you get up and running.
Pro Supports Kanban and list views
Asana provides a list view and a Kanban view which can be selected if a new project is created.
Pro Well thought out keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts all involve the Tab key, so it is unlikely that they will interfere with shortcuts that have already been established.
Pro Integrates with Slack
It's possible to have tasks appear in a Slack channel.
Pro Allows adding items via email
Pro Beautiful interface
Clean, intuitive user interaction. The design is very thoughtful. Somehow it makes Things feel clunky, despite obvious similarities of all GTD platforms.
Pro Use start dates
A vital functionality in a GTD app.
Pro Solid project management
Pro Allows setting how much effort a task will take
You can set how long a task will take and how much effort will it ask of you on a scale of 1 to 3.
Pro Allows to add postponed tasks
You can postpone a task. It helps not to clutter task lists up until you really need them.
Pro Beautiful interface
Clean, intuitive interface — both desktop and mobile. Lots of intelligent design thinking behind this. Somehow makes other GTD apps like Things feel clunky, despite similarities.
Pro Native support for Areas of Responsibility
Pro Can email focus list
The app can send you the most important items for the day in an email.
Cons
Con Mobile version lacks calendar
Asana's calendar is present in the web version but is conspicuously missing in the mobile app.
Con Unable to manage multiple workspaces
Each "workspace" or "team" in Asana is strictly isolated. You cannot see your personal tasks versus work tasks or collaborations together, you need to log in to a different profile.
Con No task dependencies in free version
Dependencies is only available only to Teams and Organizations on Asana Premium.
Con Can not use list view and board view for a same project
Asana can only choose one, either a list view or a board view.
Con Strange UX with strange workflow
Similar to task the manager in Todoist or Wunderlist, but not too complex for under four members.
Con UX Design is overly opinionated
The workflow is not very customizable, which forces you to use a flow that may not be your preferred or best option.
Con Does not integrate with other apps or services
Con No way to add sub-projects
Con No desktop widget
Con No way to work with teams
This is a one-person solution, there is absolutely no ability to share projects with others.
Con No way to color-code projects
Con No bulk (copy/paste) feature
Con Limited features in the free version
Free version limited to 5 projects, 3 reference lists and 2 areas.
Con No attachments
Can't add any attachments to the tasks - no photos, no pdfs.
Con No recur upon completion option
If you have a daily recurring task, it will recur every day regardless if it's been completed the prior day.
