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Writer's pictureAshleigh Harvey

Asana vs Trello vs Clickup: Organise your chaos like a boss

Sometimes I want to slam my head against a wall, there’s so much going on. You feel me, right? Deadlines and launches and emails and clients. How do we manage it all? We get a project management app. Here are my thoughts, as a user, on asana vs trello vs clickup.


I am an artist. In our souls, we love chaos and beauty and energy and lighting the world on fire. And then I met Malcolm Purkey, my lecturer at university. Prof. Shakespeare genius. Lover of the subversive. But also a deep believer in organised chaos. That’s what his rehearsal rooms were like. Absolute chaos. But organised. By him. Carefully controlled and expertly manipulated. But they felt like chaos. And it was delicious. So, when I hit the big wide world and I had to actually start working to earn a living, I knew that I could marry my love for art and fire and crazy unpredictability, with organised chaos. And magic would happen.


And it did. I managed to save money so I could travel and buy expensive coffee. Buy a house. Very few artists in my circles were able to. I deeply appreciated the importance of organised chaos. Emotional life? Chaos. Finances. Organised. Inside my underwear drawer? Chaos. My diary? Organised. See how this works?





Then in 2020 (aaaaaaaaah 2020)…Covid hit. What a ride, huh? And my head? Absolute chaos. Unmitigated, hysterical, spectacular chaos. So what did I do? I took the copywriting that I’d been doing on the side for ten years, and I turned it into a full-time online business. And starting that business was like adopting a puppy. Shit, err'where.


But then I found Asana. Oh, Asana. You beautiful, powerful elixir of gorgeous organisational splendour. You make my heart go boom. Especially on a Monday morning and the tasks are overflowing. But still…it’s organised.


Here’s the thing about starting your own business, or running one, no matter where you are in your journey. You need a tool that’s going to keep you organised. You need something that EVERYONE in your team can log into every day and know that these are the things they need to get done, and this is when they need to be done by.


If you’re not Asana-knowledgeable, it’s okay. It’s not too late. Get on that goodness immediately.


What are organisational tools?

These are web and mobile apps that let you organise, track, and manage your work and the work of your team. When they’re used strategically and properly they can literally simplify your business in a heartbeat. There are a few different kinds, but I currently use three of them, so these are the ones I’m going to look at.

Right. Let’s get to it. In the Asana vs Trello vs Clickup competition, which beast is best?


Asana

Like I said…splendour. Why do I love Asana so much? It’s clean. It’s neat and clean like the haircut my husband got as soon as lockdown lifted in London (can I get a muddafuggen hell, yes?).


Asana lets you know what you need to do, when people assign tasks to you. It can also get a little more complex, in that you can create subtasks and dependencies. This means that a certain task can’t be started until the task before it has been completed. This is great when you’re working with a team. It shows everyone where they sit in the task completion chain and everyone is super-clear about what they need to do.


Asana’s features

Asana is a project-based tool. You create a project and within each project, you can create tasks and sections. Then within that, you create further subtasks, tags, comments, and custom fields. You can view these projects and tasks as lists or on boards.


Now, I’m now gonna lie. When you start using it, you may feel that your brain might leak out of your eardrums. But once you understand how it works, you’ll wonder how you got anything done without it.


Trello

Trello is the same as Asana, in that it’s a task management tool, but it is, in the words of my friend Tiffany, much prettier than Asana. Trello comprises a series of lists with boards attached, providing a simple visual picture of what needs to get done. It basically mimics a Kanban board with sticky notes.


Trello’s features

Trello doesn’t have the complexity that Asana does. A board is created and then moved between different statuses depending on where you’re at with your task. So, it is much simpler to use than Asana, but that also means it’s a little limiting if you’re working on a bigger project with a bigger team. And let’s face it…one day soon you will be. Because who doesn’t want to scale their business? No one, that's who.


Clickup

My knowledge of Clickup is limited but I do use it with one of my clients. It’s really great because it allows you to keep your colleague or client up-to-date about where you are in your task’s life. So, if you’ve read the brief, you click the task update box and your client knows you’re briefed. Once you start working on it, you click the box again, and the client knows you’re working on it. I really like this, because I’m spectacularly OCD about making sure my clients know I’m totally brilliant and amazing. It also has a tracker option so you can track the time you’ve worked on various tasks or projects.


Clickup’s features

Clickup is similar to Asana in its layout and in the features that are available. The default layout of projects is lists, but you can view them as boards as well.


The commonalities

All three of these tools let you communicate with your team. So, whether you’re commenting in the board on Trello, or in a comments section in Asana and Clickup, you are able to tag your colleagues so you can ask questions and send updates.


Asana vs Trello vs Clickup: Which price is best?

Look I made you a list for easy-to-follow guidelines.


Trello

FREE:

  • Unlimited cards

  • Unlimited members

  • Up to 10 boards

  • 1 Power-Up per board

  • Unlimited storage (10MB/file)

  • 50 automated command runs per month

  • Unlimited activity log

  • Assignee and due dates

  • iOS and Android mobile apps

  • 2-factor authentication

BUSINESS CLASS

$10 per user per month billed annually ($12.50 billed monthly) Everything in Free, plus:

  • Unlimited boards

  • Unlimited Power-Ups

  • Dashboard view

  • Timeline view

  • Workspace Table view

  • Calendar view

  • Advanced checklists

  • Map view

  • 1,000 automated command runs per Workspace + 200 per user, up to 6,000 per month

  • Unlimited storage (250MB/file)

  • Admin and security features

  • Workspace-level templates

  • Collections

  • Observers

  • Single board guests

  • Custom backgrounds & stickers

  • Saved searches

  • Priority support

  • Google Apps sign-on

  • Simple data export Learn more about Business Class

ENTERPRISE

Price available on request Everything in Business Class, plus:

  • Organisation-wide permissions

  • Organization visible boards

  • Public board management

  • Multi-board guests

  • Attachment permissions

  • Power-Up administration

  • Unlimited automated command runs

Asana

BASIC: $0

  • Unlimited tasks

  • Unlimited projects

  • Unlimited messages

  • Unlimited activity log

  • Unlimited file storage (100MB per file)

  • Collaborate with up to 15 teammates

  • List view projects

  • Board view projects

  • Calendar view

  • Assignee and due dates

  • Project Overview

  • Project Brief

  • iOS and Android mobile apps

  • Time tracking with integrations - See time tracking apps

  • 100+ free integrations with your favorite apps


PREMIUM $10.99 Per user, per month billed annually $13.49 billed monthly

  • Timeline

  • Dashboards

  • Advanced search & reporting

  • Custom fields

  • Unlimited free guests

  • Forms

  • Rules

  • Milestones

  • Admin Console

  • Private teams & projects

BUSINESS $24.99 Per user, per month billed annually $30.49 billed monthly

Everything in Premium, plus:

  • Portfolios

  • Goals

  • Workload

  • Custom rules builder

  • Forms branching & customization

  • Approvals

  • Proofing

  • Lock custom fields

  • Advanced integrations with Salesforce, Adobe Creative Cloud, Tableau, Power BI

Click up

FREE 100MB Storage Unlimited Tasks Unlimited Members Two-Factor Authentication

UNLIMITED $9 per month Unlimited Storage Unlimited List, Board, and Calendar views Unlimited Integrations Unlimited Dashboards Guests and Permissions Goals, Portfolios, and Custom Fields The final verdict?

I’m going to say Asana every time. It just makes so much sense to me. It’s comprehensive; it lets me talk to the people I need to; it lets me see everything I have to do on one page, with no mess or confusion. It’s also lead me to my new mantra, which I tell all clients and prospective clients:

If it’s not in Asana, it doesn’t exist.


Ok, bye, love you.


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