When comparing Asana vs Pocket Informant, the Slant community recommends Asana for most people. In the question“What are the best GTD apps?” Asana is ranked 20th while Pocket Informant is ranked 27th. The most important reason people chose Asana is:
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.
Specs
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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 Manages much more than events
Pocket informant manages notes, tasks, and calendar info.
Pro Integrates with Apple calendar & iCloud
Pro Great organizer
Almost everything is provided, from calendar to todo,'s as well as managing lists, all of which is organized via Pocket and syncs perfectly thru all devices.
Pro Getting Things Done (GTD) integration
Pro Projects & checklists
Pro Syncs across all devices
InformantSync ensures that your calendar / tasks / notes / etc. are all synced.
Pro Displays weather
Temperature and other weather conditions are displayed each day.
Pro Easy and great looking Calendar to work with
Adding events and making them visible between other events is easy. Streamlining your multiple events is implemented very well in this app.
Pro Configurable views
Pro Advanced filtering system
Events can be tagged, sorted by location, priority, or context.
Pro Scalable
You can use it as a basic organizer or a complex project tool.
Pro Seven Day side-by-side view puts the next 7 days in an easy to use format
It makes is extremely easy to view and provides great functionality for updates or creating new events.
Pro Time zones and trips
Handles time zones automatically considering declared trips.
Pro Calendar printing
Pocket Informant supports printing, meaning that a calendar can be printed after being loaded with information.
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 Bit complicated for everyone
It is a feature oriented app for the people who love its multiple functions, but those that don't may find it complicated to use.
Con Restricted free version
The free version has many restrictions. The full version costs $14.99.
Con Lack of integration
Lack of integration. For those using several apps, integration is essential.