Asana vs. Trello

Asana is a mobile and web app that helps people to keep track of their work. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz and another engineer Justin Rosenstein, together built this unique app in 2008, to improve the productivity of employees at Facebook.

Trello came into the picture in 2011 and is the brainchild of Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software. It now has integration capabilities across all cloud platforms and is considered one of the most efficient productivity software available.

Ease of Use -Asana vs. Trello

When it comes to ease of use and that too, on the cloud, it should be a breeze to fill in and get reports in any software. At Asana, there are tons of keyboard shortcuts, so no more clickety clicks on the mousepad. There are lesser clicks too since it is way too easy to add new tasks without filling in too many fields.

Trello has a unique UI with a Kanban structure which lets team members view overall status at a glance. Team members corroborate their tasks in a single shot and get to know the status of each task at hand. At Trello, team members can lend a helping hand to other team members whilst doing their own tasks.

Reliability -Asana vs. Trello

Asana caters to all kinds of business; it even has an enterprise solution, which is missing in Trello. Asana has an ever-evolving support policy, it provides online support which is still missing in Trello.

Both have a video tutorial as well as a knowledge hub which allows faster resolution of queries. There is no Windows app available in Asana.

Even with a smaller customer base, Trello needs to have a chat support system. It feels good that you have someone on the other side to help you out. Businesses tend to thrive with Asana.

Speed -Asana vs. Trello

Asana’s easy and fast UI results in clumsy fields in the application. The free flow design makes it too cloggy at some times.

Trello has a Kanban approach, which displays dashboards and tiles in a neat and clean manner. Nothing hazy here, just plain and simple labeling and a story-based approach. This renders Trello easier and faster compared to Asana, you could pursue all the activities at the drop of a hat.

Users are also rendered faster access to their tasks and stories and can also update the progress with a blink of an eye. And moreover, they are updated in real-time whenever a task or story, or discussion is modified. Thus Trello gets the buck on Speed.

Features -Asana vs. Trello

Asana is known for its task list management system. It is one of a kind approach where you can tag multiple things to a single item. This means many projects can have one single task or story to discuss upon.

Now, these tasks need to be followed up pretty well until completion or closure. Asana sticks out its neck in finding out open tasks and throws up a reminder. The user gets reminded every then and now and that too, in a single glance, about their open tasks and follow-up tasks.  

It integrates smoothly with your mailbox; hence, all your communications and correspondences are placed on one platform, allowing the user to respond to customers and colleagues almost instantaneously. At Asana, you can also create a personal workspace, wherein tasks can be viewed without giving access to others.

Even personal tasks can be created which could be kept safe from colleagues which adds to the security feature. However, you cannot invite outsiders into this workspace. There is a sub-task facility where child tasks can easily lose their link with parent tasks, once they have moved around a bit. The sub-tasks can be assigned a date too.

Trello’s main USP is the Kanban approach, where people have the ability to view tasks at a single shot. It also has a workspace wherein people from outside the organization can be invited to discuss topics on the same platform as the people within the organization.

It enables collaboration with users’ partners around the globe. It has a grouping system like Facebook, where public, private, and closed groups can be created on the basis of the level of access needed in each group. There is an added functionality of checklists in the tasks.

It comes with an exceptional feature of sub-tasking, wherein the parent-child relationship between tasks is not changed, even when they are moved here and there. But you cannot add dates to these sub-tasks, which makes it difficult to follow up. Multiple people can be assigned or made part of the same task across the organization.

There can be various task lists within each Kanban board, allowing everyone to contribute to each task list, with their individual advice. The Kanban task lists also give a boost to brainstorming sessions. People can contribute their ideas and discuss ideas thoroughly, with everyone on the same page, resulting in product development and pilot plan deployment.

There are another drag-and-drop feature that makes it immensely easy to create, edit, and assign tasks, and it’s very easy to pick up.

Security -Asana vs. Trello

Asana saves all data in secured SSAE 16 data centers from the Amazon Web Servers. Web connections to the Asana service are via TLS 1.0 and more. They have a myriad of firewalls, DNS servers, and routers to save the data from imminent threats and leakage.

They also use an industry-standard Time Password system to secure access to corporate employees, so there is no chance of leakage within the organization.

Trello also runs on TLS, but has an added advantage of HTTPS and SSL encryption, making it even more secure to pass through. Data backup takes place every hour and is stored off-site in a disaster recovery location. It has data portability, which allows your data to be downloaded by you, anytime.

Summary -Asana vs. Trello

Asana is too young in the market now. But it has come out with all guns blazing and has evolved like anything. Asana has been the pure favorite of business owners as Trello is more inclined towards team members and players. With an ever-evolving attitude of Asana, it strikes a balance when it comes to managing projects and tasks.