project management tool · head to head
Asana vs ClickUp
Comparison Summary
ClickUp scored 7.4 and Asana scored 6.7 on our project management tool test script.
Both apps passed most of our eight-step project test, but on different terms. ClickUp did it all on its free plan: four views, a working rule, dependencies, recurring tasks, a 500-row import and AI chat. A new Asana account starts on a 14-day Advanced trial, and once it ends the free plan keeps list, board and calendar views for two people; Gantt charts, rules, custom fields such as priority and the AI need Starter at $10.99 per user a month.
Feature for feature, Asana was the smoother app. Its CSV import recognised all seven of our columns and finished 200 rows in about 10 seconds, where ClickUp matched none and we mapped each one by hand. Asana's rules can be written in plain English, its recurring task did not clash with our rule, and its export keeps dependencies, which ClickUp's drops. ClickUp's AI asked before adding subtasks; Asana's did not.
On weight they are a tie: both need about 14 seconds to become usable and 1.4 to 2.2 GB of memory. ClickUp adds itself to Windows startup and leaves a broken startup entry after uninstalling; Asana does neither but keeps running after you close its window. Choose ClickUp to get the most on a free plan; choose Asana if your team will pay and values a polished import, export and AI.
Key differences
Asana
ClickUp - Plan used in our test
- Asana:14-day Advanced trial (automatic for new accounts)
- ClickUp:Free Forever
- Free plan
- Asana:Up to 2 users; list, board and calendar
- ClickUp:Unlimited members; list, board, calendar and Gantt, 100 automation actions a month
- Paid plans from
- Asana:$10.99 per user a month, billed yearly
- ClickUp:$9 per user a month, billed yearly
- Our 8 scripted tasks
- Asana:5 passed, 3 partial
- ClickUp:6 passed, 2 partial
- 200-row CSV import
- Asana:7 of 7 columns recognised; about 10 seconds
- ClickUp:0 of 7 columns matched; about 2 minutes after mapping each by hand
- Rules and AI
- Asana:Rule written in plain English; AI accurate but added subtasks without asking. Both paid
- ClickUp:Rule and AI worked on the free plan; AI asked before adding subtasks
- Speed and memory
- Asana:Usable after about 14 s; 1.4–1.8 GB private memory
- ClickUp:Usable after about 14 s; 1.7–2.2 GB
- Export
- Asana:Per project, instant; keeps subtasks and dependencies
- ClickUp:Whole workspace in under a minute; no dependencies or recurrence
- Starts with Windows
- Asana:No, but keeps running after you close the window
- ClickUp:Yes, added without asking
- Left after uninstalling
- Asana:About 245 MB
- ClickUp:About 275 MB and a broken startup entry
Editor's Verdict
Choose ClickUp if…
Best for: Small teams that want lists, boards, Gantt charts, automations and AI in one free workspace and do not mind a busy, heavy app.
- Every view we needed is free: list, board, calendar and Gantt, with no upgrade prompt
- Automation, dependency and recurring task all worked on the free plan
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one task per line
Choose Asana if…
Best for: Teams ready to pay for Starter or Advanced who want a polished, fast-to-learn project tool with strong import and export.
- The CSV import recognised all seven of our columns with no manual mapping; 200 rows took about 10 seconds
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one task per line, and dates can be typed
- Rules can be built by describing them in a chat; ours fired within about 20 seconds
Head to Head
Task by task
The same prompts, pasted word for word into each app on a clean Windows 11 PC. On the 8 tasks both apps were graded on, Asana completed 5 and ClickUp completed 6.
| Task | Asana | ClickUp |
|---|---|---|
| P1 · Build a project | Partial≈ 9 min | Pass≈ 200 actions |
| P2 · Views | Pass≈ 2 min | Pass≈ 2 min |
| P3 · Rules | Pass≈ 6 min | Pass≈ 7 min |
| P4 · 200-row import | Partial≈ 4 min | Partial≈ 12 min |
| P5 · Scale | Pass≈ 1.5 min import | Pass< 2 min import |
| P6 · Permissions | Pass≈ 10 min | Pass≈ 5 min |
| P7 · AI | Pass≈ 20–30 s each | Pass≈ 1–1.5 min each |
| P8 · Leave | Partial≈ 6 min | Partial≈ 7 min |
Asana ran on its 14-day Advanced trial, which every new account starts on; ClickUp ran on its Free Forever plan. The table notes where an Asana result depends on a paid feature.
Measured on the same PC
| Measurement | Asana | ClickUp |
|---|---|---|
| Installer size | 177 MB | 150 MB |
| Install time | ≈ 20–25 s | ≈ 45 s |
| On disk | 1.1 GB | 643 MB |
| Admin rights | Not needed | Not needed |
| Starts with Windows | No | Yes, by default |
| 40-task project | ≈ 9 min | ≈ 200 actions |
| Views on the free plan | 3 / 4 | 4 / 4 |
| 200-row CSV import | ≈ 10 s | 200 / 200 |
| 500-row CSV import | ≈ 1.5 min | < 2 min |
| 500-task board | 0.7 s | 0.7 s |
| Cold start | ≈ 14 s | ≈ 14 s |
| Memory | 1.4 – 1.8 GB | 1.7 – 2.2 GB |
| CSV export | 47 / 47 | 771 / 771 |
| Left after uninstall | ≈ 245 MB | ≈ 275 MB |
Pros and cons
Asana
+ What works
- The CSV import recognised all seven of our columns with no manual mapping; 200 rows took about 10 seconds
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one task per line, and dates can be typed
- Rules can be built by describing them in a chat; ours fired within about 20 seconds
- Recurring tasks and rules did not get in each other's way
- Dash, the AI chat, got our project summary and the overdue question right
- The project CSV export includes subtasks and dependencies
- Removing a member took effect on their next page load and offers a handover of their tasks
- No admin rights, no startup entry and no services
− What falls short
- New accounts start a 14-day trial, so you see paid features first; there is no button to end it early
- The free plan is for 2 users, with list, board and calendar only; Gantt, Timeline, rules, custom fields and AI need Starter
- No priority field on the free plan: priorities are a custom field, which is a paid feature
- The import keeps “Done” as a label, does not mark those tasks complete and does not split “qa;legal” tags
- Heavy: about 14 seconds to a usable window and 1.4–1.8 GB of private memory, with a working set up to 3.2 GB
- Dash created subtasks without asking first, and an AI field suggestion kept coming back after we dismissed it
- Closing the window leaves Asana running; the uninstall leaves about 245 MB
- Marketing emails are pre-ticked at sign-up
ClickUp
+ What works
- Every view we needed is free: list, board, calendar and Gantt, with no upgrade prompt
- Automation, dependency and recurring task all worked on the free plan
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one task per line
- 500-row CSV import in under two minutes, and the 500-task board opened in under a second
- Brain² summarised our project accurately, answered “what is overdue?” correctly and asked before adding subtasks
- Full CSV export in under a minute: all 771 tasks, with comments and subtasks
- Removing someone's access took effect immediately
− What falls short
- Heavy: about 14 seconds from launch to a usable list and 1.7–2.2 GB of memory
- The CSV import matched none of our seven columns automatically and needed status values mapped by hand
- The import offers to invite everyone whose email is in the file
- Starts with Windows by default and leaves about 275 MB and a broken startup entry after uninstalling
- Free AI chat is a one-off trial that does not reset
- The export drops dependencies and recurrence settings
- Busy setup: nine onboarding screens, a phone-number request, an invite nudge and an AI pop-up for every new list
Privacy and security
What we saw on our own test PC. Each review also lists what the vendor states about data handling, training and certifications.
Asana
No startup entry
The installer added no startup entry, services, scheduled tasks or listening ports. The app does keep running after you close its window.
Marketing emails pre-ticked
Sign-up ticks “Get feature updates and tips via email” by default, and the industry question notes that Asana may contact you about its products.
Organization-wide by default
New projects are open to everyone in the organization as Editors until you make them private.
Left after uninstalling
A 236 MB profile folder with the signed-in session and a 10 MB updater.
ClickUp
Starts with Windows
The installer adds ClickUp to Windows startup without asking. It adds no services or scheduled tasks and only listens on the PC itself.
Contacts are pushed, not required
Setup asks for a phone number for promotional calls and messages, and the CSV import pre-fills the file's email addresses as invitations. Both can be skipped.
Full deletion is opt-in
Deleting a workspace keeps it recoverable unless you tick a separate box to delete it and its third-party data permanently.
Left after uninstalling
A 133 MB profile folder, a 143 MB updater cache, the clickup:// link handler and a startup entry pointing at the removed program.
Features & Pricing
| Asana | ClickUp | |
|---|---|---|
| Web | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | — | ✓ |
| iOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paid from | $10.99/mo | $9/mo |
Asana plans
- Personal$0
- Starter$10.99/user/mo
- Advanced$24.99/user/mo
- EnterpriseCustom
From Asana's pricing page, checked Oct 29, 2026.
ClickUp plans
- Free Forever$0
- Core$9/user/mo
- Business$17/user/mo
- EnterpriseCustom
From ClickUp's pricing page, checked Oct 29, 2026.
Who makes them
- Company
- Asana:Asana, Inc.
- ClickUp:ClickUp (Mango Technologies, Inc.)
- Headquarters
- Asana:San Francisco, California, USA
- ClickUp:San Diego, California, USA
- Founded
- Asana:2008
- ClickUp:2017
- Funding
- Asana:Public company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ASAN) through a direct listing in September 2020.
- ClickUp:$400 million Series C in October 2021 at a reported $4 billion valuation.
Timelines, official links and sources are in each review: Asana · ClickUp.
FAQ
Which is better, Asana or ClickUp?
ClickUp scored higher overall in our tests because it did everything on its free plan. Asana was smoother to work in and better at importing and exporting, but most of what impressed us needs a paid plan.
Which has the better free plan?
ClickUp. Its free plan has unlimited members, Gantt charts, automations and an AI trial. Asana's free Personal plan is for 2 users with list, board and calendar views only.
Which imports a CSV file better?
Asana. It recognised all seven columns of our test file and imported 200 rows in about 10 seconds. ClickUp matched none of the columns, so we mapped them by hand before the import ran.
Is Asana or ClickUp faster on Windows?
Neither is quick to start: both took about 14 seconds to become usable. Both opened a 500-task board in 0.7 seconds. ClickUp used slightly more memory.
Which is easier to leave?
Asana's export keeps dependencies and was complete for each project; ClickUp exports the whole workspace at once but drops dependencies and recurrence. ClickUp lets you delete a workspace; Asana has no option to delete the organization in its admin console.
Read the full reviews
This page compares the two side by side. Each full review has the complete test log, every screenshot, the scoring notes, pricing, security and company details.
Asana reviewSituational 6.7 Asana is the smoother tool to work in: pasting builds tasks, the CSV import understood all our columns and finished 200 rows in about 10 seconds, its AI was accurate, and the export keeps dependencies. But a new account runs on a 14-day trial, and much of what impressed us, from Gantt charts and rules to custom fields and the AI, is paid. The free plan is for two people and has list, board and calendar views. Read the full review → ClickUp reviewRecommended 7.4 ClickUp passed every step of our project-management test on the free plan: all the views, a working automation, dependencies, recurring tasks, a 500-row import and an AI that got the facts right and asked before changing anything. It is heavy, though: the Windows app needs about 14 seconds and up to 2 GB of memory, and the import and setup make you do more by hand than they should. Read the full review →