Asana vs Planka

Asana is a hosted work management platform with list, board, timeline, and calendar views of the same tasks, plus AI Studio and modular enterprise add-ons,…

Best for Asana: Asana fits teams that need to view the same work as lists, boards, timelines, and calendars interchangeably, and that want AI Studio and add-ons like Timesheets & Budgets or Compliance Management without switching platforms.
Best for Planka: Planka fits small teams or technical organizations that want a free, self-hosted Kanban board with real-time sync and OIDC single sign-on, or that are comfortable paying a modest per-user hosted fee instead of Asana's per-user SaaS pricing.

At a Glance

 AsanaPlanka
Primary categoryProject ManagementProject Management
RatingNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starting priceFreeFree (self-hosted Community Edition); Pro plans priced separately
Free planYesYes
Free trialNot documentedNot documented
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb
Team collaborationYesNot documented
AI featuresYesNot documented
Public APIYesYes

Key Differences

Deployment Model

Asana: Asana is a hosted SaaS product with no self-hosted option.

Planka: Planka offers a free, self-hosted Community edition deployable via Docker, source available on GitHub, as well as managed hosted plans.

Self-hosting gives full infrastructure control and can avoid per-user SaaS costs, at the expense of needing to operate the server yourself.

Free Tier Depth

Asana: Asana's free Personal plan is capped at 2 users, making it unusable for real team collaboration without upgrading.

Planka: Planka's Community Self-Hosted edition is free with no user cap, though it lacks calendar/map views, recurring cards, and custom branding, and its license prohibits cross-company use.

A 2-user cap forces small teams into a paid plan almost immediately, while a feature-limited-but-unlimited-users free tier can support a full team at zero cost.

Pricing Structure

Asana: Asana charges per user per month: $10.99 (Starter) or $24.99 (Advanced), billed annually, plus custom Enterprise pricing.

Planka: Planka's hosted plans combine a monthly base fee with per-user pricing, e.g. Community Hosted at €13.00/month base plus €2.60-2.90/user/month (minimum 5 users), or Pro Hosted at €42.50/month base plus €8.50-9.40/user/month.

Base-plus-per-user pricing can be cheaper than pure per-seat pricing for larger teams, but the comparison depends on team size and which features are needed.

AI and Enterprise Add-Ons

Asana: Asana includes AI Studio (with a monthly credit allowance) on paid tiers, plus modular add-ons like AI Teammates, Timesheets & Budgets, Compliance Management, and Permissions Management available on any plan.

Planka: Planka's documented feature set does not include AI features; its Pro tier instead adds custom branding, calendar and map views, and recurring cards.

Teams that want AI-assisted work management or granular enterprise controls without jumping to a top-tier plan need a platform that offers them as add-ons.

Authentication and API Access

Asana: Asana's authentication and API details are not specified in the available facts.

Planka: Planka supports OIDC-based single sign-on and a documented REST API with a Swagger UI reference plus community Python and PHP SDKs.

Documented SSO and API access matter for teams that need to integrate a Kanban tool into an existing identity and tooling stack.

Feature-by-Feature

Core Task Management

FeatureAsanaPlanka
List/board/timeline/calendar viewsAvailableLimited
Kanban boardsAvailableAvailable
Real-time board synchronizationNot documentedAvailable
Recurring cardsNot documentedLimited

Pricing & Plans

FeatureAsanaPlanka
Free tierLimitedAvailable
Entry paid planAvailableAvailable
Self-hosted deploymentUnavailableAvailable
Enterprise/custom planAvailableAvailable

AI & Enterprise Controls

FeatureAsanaPlanka
AI feature setAvailableUnavailable
Compliance/permissions add-onsAvailableNot documented
Single sign-on (SSO)Not documentedAvailable
Custom brandingNot documentedLimited

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

Planka

Community Edition — Free N/A (self-hosted)
Pro Edition — Custom (contact sales) Subscription, self-hosted or managed cloud

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

Planka

Pros

  • Free to self-host with no per-user fees for the Community Edition
  • Familiar, Trello-like interface with a low learning curve
  • Real-time collaboration and unlimited boards and cards
  • Full data ownership, appealing to privacy- and compliance-conscious teams
  • Active open development community with frequent updates and many translations

Cons

  • Self-hosting requires basic server or Docker administration skills
  • The Fair Use License is not an OSI-approved open-source license and restricts reselling Planka as a hosted service
  • Pro Edition pricing is not fully transparent on the public website
  • Lacks some advanced automation and reporting features found in larger commercial PM tools

Use Cases

Choose Asana: Asana fits teams that need to view the same work as lists, boards, timelines, and calendars interchangeably, and that want AI Studio and add-ons like Timesheets & Budgets or Compliance Management without switching platforms.
Choose Planka: Planka fits small teams or technical organizations that want a free, self-hosted Kanban board with real-time sync and OIDC single sign-on, or that are comfortable paying a modest per-user hosted fee instead of Asana's per-user SaaS pricing.
Need both: A software team might self-host Planka for engineering's day-to-day Kanban board (leveraging its REST API and self-hosted control) while using Asana company-wide for cross-functional project timelines and AI Studio reporting that Planka does not offer.

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.

Planka

  • Privacy-conscious project tracking — Teams that need to keep task data on their own infrastructure self-host Planka instead of using a third-party SaaS Kanban tool.
  • Small team Kanban workflow — Startups and small teams use Planka as a free Trello alternative to organize sprints, backlogs and to-do lists.
  • Internal agency task boards — Agencies run Planka internally to track client work and deliverables without paying per-seat SaaS fees.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Asana or Planka cheaper for a small team?

Planka's Community Self-Hosted edition is free with no user limit if you're willing to self-host, while Asana's free Personal plan is capped at 2 users, so real team use on Asana requires the $10.99/user/month Starter plan.

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

No, Planka's documented feature set does not include AI tooling; Asana includes AI Studio with a monthly credit allowance on its Starter plan and above.

Can Planka be self-hosted?

Yes, Planka's Community edition is free, open source, and deployable via Docker on your own server; Asana has no self-hosted option.

Does Asana support single sign-on?

SSO is not specified in Asana's documented facts here, while Planka explicitly supports OIDC-based single sign-on.

What does Planka's Pro tier add over the free Community edition?

Pro adds custom branding (logo, colors, login page), worker and guest roles, calendar and map views, cross-company use rights, and recurring cards, none of which are in the free Community Self-Hosted edition.

Which tool offers more views of the same task data?

Asana explicitly offers list, board, timeline, and calendar views of the same underlying tasks; Planka is primarily a Kanban board, with calendar and map views reserved for its Pro tier.

Read the full Asana review · Read the full Planka review