Asana vs OpenProject

Asana is a cloud SaaS work management platform where the same tasks can be viewed as a list, board, timeline, or calendar, with AI Studio and modular…

Best for Asana: Teams that want a flexible SaaS tool where the same task data can be viewed as list, board, timeline, or calendar, plus built-in AI Studio (on Starter tier and above) and modular enterprise add-ons like AI Teammates and Compliance Management without forcing a jump to Enterprise.
Best for OpenProject: Teams wanting a genuinely free, open-source, self-hostable project management tool with Gantt charts and agile Scrum/Kanban boards, particularly where data residency or avoiding per-seat SaaS costs matters.

At a Glance

 AsanaOpenProject
Primary categoryProject ManagementProject Management
RatingNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starting priceFreeFree (Community edition); paid plans from about EUR 5.95/user/month
Free planYesYes
Free trialNot documentedYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb
Team collaborationYesNot documented
AI featuresYesNot documented
Public APIYesYes

Key Differences

Free Plan Depth

Asana: Asana's Personal plan is free but capped at 2 users, aimed at individuals rather than teams.

OpenProject: OpenProject's Community Edition is free, open source, self-hosted, with no user cap at all.

A 2-user cap means real team use on Asana requires an immediate jump to a paid tier, while OpenProject's free tier scales to any team size.

Deployment Model

Asana: Asana is a cloud-only SaaS platform; self-hosting is not documented.

OpenProject: OpenProject offers both a free self-hosted Community Edition and paid Enterprise Cloud SaaS tiers (Basic €5.95, Professional €10.95, Premium €15.95 per user/month).

Organizations with data residency or infrastructure control requirements need a self-hosting option, which only one of these tools offers.

AI Features

Asana: Asana includes AI Studio on paid tiers (Starter and above) with a monthly AI credit allowance.

OpenProject: OpenProject does not document any AI features.

AI-assisted workflow features are increasingly expected in work management tools for tasks like automation and summarization.

Views vs. Gantt/Agile Focus

Asana: Asana emphasizes multiple views of the same underlying tasks: list, board, timeline, and calendar, without duplicating information.

OpenProject: OpenProject emphasizes Gantt charts, Scrum/Kanban agile boards, and a Team Planner for visualizing workload across the team.

Teams have different visualization preferences: flexible multi-view task management versus schedule-centric Gantt planning.

Enterprise Add-On Model

Asana: Asana sells modular enterprise add-ons (AI Teammates, Timesheets & Budgets, Compliance Management, Permissions Management) that can attach to any plan rather than requiring a full Enterprise-tier jump.

OpenProject: OpenProject's enterprise features are bundled into fixed tiers (Basic/Professional/Premium/Corporate) with rising per-user prices and user minimums of 25+ (Basic/Professional), 100+ (Premium), or 250+ (Corporate).

Modular add-ons let teams buy only the enterprise capability they need, while tiered bundling can force paying for features that come packaged with a user minimum.

Feature-by-Feature

Task & Project Views

FeatureAsanaOpenProject
List/board/timeline/calendar viewsAvailableNot documented
Gantt chartsNot documentedAvailable
Agile Scrum/Kanban boardsNot documentedAvailable
Team workload plannerNot documentedAvailable

Pricing & Deployment

FeatureAsanaOpenProject
Free planLimitedAvailable
Self-hosted optionUnavailableAvailable
Entry paid tier priceAvailableAvailable
Free trial for paid tiersNot documentedAvailable

AI & Enterprise Add-ons

FeatureAsanaOpenProject
AI-assisted featuresAvailableUnavailable
Modular enterprise add-onsAvailableUnavailable
Open API for customizationNot documentedAvailable

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

Asana

Personal — Free N/A
Starter — $10.99/user/month annual ($13.49 monthly)
Advanced — $24.99/user/month annual
Enterprise — Custom custom
Enterprise+ — Custom custom

OpenProject

Community — Free N/A
Basic — About EUR 5.95/user/month Monthly or annual (25-user minimum)
Professional — About EUR 10.95/user/month Monthly or annual (25-user minimum)
Premium — About EUR 15.95/user/month Annual or multi-year (100-user minimum)
Corporate — Custom pricing Annual or multi-year (250-user minimum)

Pros & Cons

Asana

Pros

  • Free plan available for small teams
  • Flexible views suit many project management styles
  • Strong third-party integration ecosystem
  • AI Teammates and AI Studio add automation without extra tools

Cons

  • Free plan is limited to 2 users on new accounts
  • Advanced features (goals, portfolios, AI Studio credits) require Advanced or Enterprise plans
  • Per-user pricing can get expensive for large teams
  • Feature depth can mean a learning curve for new users

OpenProject

Pros

  • Free, fully-featured open-source Community edition
  • Can be fully self-hosted for data sovereignty and compliance
  • Native BIM support unusual among mainstream project management tools
  • Strong fit for government and EU-regulated organizations
  • Combines classic Gantt planning with agile Scrum and Kanban in one tool

Cons

  • Interface feels less polished than modern SaaS competitors like Asana or Monday.com
  • Paid tiers require a 25-user minimum
  • Premium and Corporate tiers require large minimum user counts of 100 to 250
  • Self-hosting requires IT resources to maintain
  • Smaller third-party integration ecosystem than Jira

Use Cases

Choose Asana: Teams that want a flexible SaaS tool where the same task data can be viewed as list, board, timeline, or calendar, plus built-in AI Studio (on Starter tier and above) and modular enterprise add-ons like AI Teammates and Compliance Management without forcing a jump to Enterprise.
Choose OpenProject: Teams wanting a genuinely free, open-source, self-hostable project management tool with Gantt charts and agile Scrum/Kanban boards, particularly where data residency or avoiding per-seat SaaS costs matters.
Need both: An organization might run Asana for smaller, cross-functional teams that benefit from AI Studio and flexible views, while a separate engineering group standardizes on self-hosted OpenProject for Gantt-heavy, data-sovereign project tracking; this is more a case of different teams choosing different tools than one team needing both simultaneously.

Asana

  • Cross-Functional Project Tracking — Coordinate tasks and deadlines across marketing, product, and operations teams.
  • AI-Assisted Workflow Automation — Use AI Teammates and AI Studio to automate repetitive project and reporting tasks.

OpenProject

  • Software team running agile sprints — A development team uses Scrum boards and backlogs to plan and track sprints.
  • Construction firm needing BIM scheduling — An engineering firm uses OpenProject's BIM integration alongside Gantt charts to schedule construction phases.
  • Government agency needing self-hosted project management — A public-sector agency self-hosts OpenProject to keep project data within national infrastructure for compliance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Asana free for individuals?

Yes, the Personal plan is free but limited to 2 users, aimed at individuals rather than teams.

Is OpenProject free?

Yes, the Community Edition is free and open source under GPL v3, with no minimum user count, unlike Asana's 2-user-capped free plan.

Does OpenProject have AI features like Asana's AI Studio?

This is not documented. Asana includes AI Studio on paid tiers (Starter and above) with a monthly AI credit allowance; OpenProject's feature list does not mention any AI capability.

Can OpenProject be self-hosted while Asana cannot?

OpenProject explicitly supports self-hosting via its free Community Edition. Asana's documented facts don't mention a self-hosting option, consistent with it being a cloud SaaS product.

What are the minimum user requirements for OpenProject's paid tiers?

Basic and Professional require a minimum of 25 users, Premium requires 100+, and Corporate requires 250+. Asana has no documented user minimum on its Starter or Advanced tiers.

How does pricing compare at scale?

Asana's Starter tier is $10.99/user/month and Advanced is $24.99/user/month, both billed annually. OpenProject's Basic tier is €5.95/user/month and Professional is €10.95/user/month, but both require a minimum of 25 users, so the effective monthly floor is higher than a per-user comparison alone suggests.

Read the full Asana review · Read the full OpenProject review