When comparing Any.do vs Asana, the Slant community recommends Asana for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform task apps?” Asana is ranked 12th while Any.do is ranked 14th. 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 Clean, intuitive design
Any.do splits all tasks up into groups. Tasks can be grouped either by date (today, tomorrow, upcoming, and someday) or in custom folders. Each group has a plus button next to it that allows adding new tasks to the group.
Pro "Any.do Moment" makes to-dos manageable
"Moment" is a reminder to check all tasks that are planned for the day. It simplifies scheduling your day and let’s you quickly check off items as they're completed. It can be set it to prompt you in the morning or afternoon to review your day’s tasks and update whether or not you’ve accomplished them. This is really useful for managing a long to-do list without feeling overwhelmed.
Pro Web interface for desktop access
The web interface can be used to add items.
Pro Clever auto-complete
As tasks are added, Any.do attempts to guess what is going to be written and offers suggestions. It will search through contacts for names and information, allowing you to add people to tasks and offering suggestions for meeting spots that are convenient for everyone.
Pro Missed call reminder on Android
The mobile app reminds you of missed calls and helps manage them in the future.
Pro Folders for tasks
Users can create and edit folders for certain tasks, like “personal” and “work.”
Pro Has a system that allows collaborating on tasks
Any.do allows creating "hubs" for groups of people, like colleagues, family, and friends, where tasks can be shared or assigned to each other.
Pro Simple
Any.do includes the features that are needed and nothing more.
Pro Free version
Any.do has a free version and also offers a Premium plan that costs $3 a month.
Pro Cross-platform support and sync
The app runs on iOS, Android, as a Chrome extension and in browsers.
Pro Rewards for completing tasks
The app integrates with Kiip, a reward platform that gives free, real-life rewards when a to-do list is completed.
Pro Five simple widgets for Android
There are five widgets to choose from, all of which are simple and useful.
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.
Cons
Con No Windows app or client
Unlike rival to-do list apps such as Todoist or Wunderlist, Any.do does not have an official app for Windows. There’s also no indication that the company plans to build this app in the near future.
Con Lack of power features like priority and labels
Any.do has only two levels of priority that can be assigned to tasks, namely Normal and High. There is no way to assign any sort of weights to tasks either. There is no feature to assign any sort of labels on them to be able to filter particular type of tasks. These features are very valuable to a power user.
Con If you pay once it charges recurring even after unsubscribe and notified to the team as well.
Only solution is downgrade to free plan and remove credit card details.
Con Limited Any.do moments in free version
The free version gives only five Any.do moments per month, limiting productivity.
Con Cannot see task details easily
To view subtasks, notes or other data you have to click or tap multiple times. There is no task view that shows everything you should know about the task.
Con Invasive App Permissions
In order to be a complete solution, Any.Do can seem to take over your phone. For example, it monitors missed calls so you can schedule a call back.
Con Offline access not available in free version
Since the addition of the Premium plan, offline access to lists is not available for free Any.do users.
Con Spotty auto-complete and voice recognition
Though the auto-complete feature is very smart in that it can access contacts and create a variety of tasks, it also might auto-complete with something entirely wrong. The voice recognition also has some issues with correctly understanding what is being said.
Con Slow animations and features
The app goes for a smooth feel with lots of things being automated and animated. This slows down it's use, especially on older phones.
Con Awkward data entry
You cannot simply start entering tasks, one after another. You must click or tap the add icon to get a text entry field.
Con All tasks default to "today"
While there is a 'someday' category, by default every task as an end date of today. This means you get constant notifications for quickly added tasks.
Con Incomplete keyboard control
There’s no clear way to select and mark tasks using keyboard.
Con No Android Wear and Apple Watch support
The Any.do app currently does not support Android Wear or Apple Watch, in contrast to rival to-do list apps such as Todoist or Wunderlist. Currently Any.do does not have plans to support these devices.
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.