| Functionality | 9 <p>Asana offers almost all the functionality most companies need to manage tasks and projects effectively. It has rich functionality such as customisable forms, automation, time-tracking and anlalytics. For larger teams with multiple teams and projects, it also offers excellent portfolio management functionality.</p><p>However, it's missing the advanced customizability that the largest teams require to manage complex task and project relationships e.g. assigning multiple team members to a task or sophisticated automation workflows with branches.</p> | 9 <p>Jira delivers nearly all the functionality that SMBs—and even enterprises—will need.</p><p>Its task and project management capabilities are incredibly powerful and flexible. You can customize Jira to fit virtually any project, even those with complex structures like five layers of sub-tasks, each with their own custom fields.</p><p>That said, Jira does have some gaps. It doesn’t natively offer features like invoicing, billing, or expense tracking, which other tools sometimes include. Plus, for built-in docs or wikis, you’ll need to use its sister product, Confluence.</p> |
| Ease of Use | 7 <p>Asana balances functionality with a relatively intuitive interface, but it's not the simplest tool to use. There's a moderate learning curve due to the wide array of features, and compared to some of the tools we've tested and there are at times less templates available (e.g. for building automation). However, it generally does a good job guiding users throughout the platform e.g. linking projects to goals, navigating different customisation options on project views.</p> | 4 <p>Compared to other project management tools, we find Jira complex to navigate. The interface is packed with features and options, which can make it overwhelming and unintuitive—especially for new users. The learning curve is steep, and it can take weeks for team members to get fully comfortable.</p><p>For example, even for simple projects, there are multiple configuration pages to manage: settings for the entire project, specific project views, built-in fields, custom fields—you name it. It’s powerful, but all these layers can quickly become confusing.</p> |
| Look and feel | 8 <p>Asana features a clean, modern design with a visually appealing interface. Pages loads are acceptable (1-3 seconds) and Asana also sprinkles moments of delight in the user experience e.g. rainbow unicorns fly across your screen when tasks/ projects are marked complete!</p> | 5 <p>While Jira has made strides in design and usability with recent updates, it still feels a bit dated compared to more modern Project Management tools like Linear. Customizing the UI is pretty limited, so you’re mostly stuck with the default look and feel.</p><p>Our main gripe, though, is page load times. At 2–3+ seconds per page, things can feel sluggish—and this gets gets compounded as your projects and teams grow. It's a frustration that can niggle you every day.</p> |
| Customisability | 6 <p>Asana provides a good level of customizability, allowing users to create custom fields, templates, and workflows to suit their team's needs. However, there are some limitations e.g. you're unable to link related tasks (that aren't dependent on one another), add multiple team members to a task etc. Unlike more flexible all-in-one tools, Asana is strictly a project management tool - each item must be a "task", which means you're can't use it for other use cases (e.g. HR - tracking employees, sales - tracking deals).</p> | 10 <p>We find Jira to be impressively, and overwhelmingly, customisable.</p><p>You can customise almost anything you can think of - custom task types, workflows, specialized screens, validation rules, and more. For ultimate flexibility, there’s even Jira’s own query language (JQL), which lets you search and filter issues with incredible precision.</p> |
| Ease of Setup | 8 <p>Offers a self-serve free trial and allows purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, because it has a good library of templates for projects. Full setup should take less than a day.</p> | 4 <p>Jira offers a self-serve free trial and lets you purchase without dealing with sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks or subtasks takes about 30–40 minutes, which can feel a bit more confusing compared to other tools. That said, its rich library of templates helps streamline the process.</p><p>Be prepared, though—a full setup will likely take at least a few days, especially if you’re customizing it for more complex workflows.</p> |
| Customer Support | 5 <p>For Asana users on lower tiers, you can contact support by submitting a ticket through its AI chatbot (which was unhelpful and frustrating to get through). However, Asana does have high quality help centre and community support.</p> | 4 <p>We find that Jira's support leaves a lot to be desired. Atlassian (the maker of Jira) nudge users toward self-service options like documentation and community forums, which can be frustrating when you need quick, direct help. Even when you reach out for support, the experience can be hit-or-miss—especially if you’re a smaller customer without a premium support plan.</p> |
| Integratability | 8 <p>Asana has integrations with most relevant third party apps (e.g. CRM, time-tracking, invoicing marketing, developer tools etc). It also has an API for custom integrations.</p> | 9 <p>Jira, powered by Atlassian, has a thriving app marketplace with thousands of plugins. If there’s a feature you need that Jira doesn’t offer natively, chances are there’s a third-party app for it. Plus, Jira provides an API, giving you the flexibility to build custom integrations when needed.</p> |
| Ease of Migration | 8 <p>Exporting key data out of Trello is relatively straightforward. You can simply export entire projects, with all your tasks, in JSON or CSV formats. However, note that not all data - such as comments, activity logs and attachments will transfer seamlessly. However, you can export other data via its API.</p> | 5 <p>Migrating away from Jira can be a bit of a headache. Exporting data isn’t exactly seamless, and you’ll likely need to spend time cleaning and reformatting it before it’s usable in another tool. Custom fields, workflows, and issue types often don’t have direct equivalents elsewhere, which can lead to data loss or tricky mapping processes. It’s definitely something to plan for if you’re considering switching.</p> |
