project management tool · head to head
Asana vs Notion
Comparison Summary
Notion scored 6.9 and Asana scored 6.7 on our project management tool test script.
Asana and Notion both imported our CSV file flawlessly, recognising all seven columns in about 10 seconds, and both AIs summarised our project accurately. The difference is what you get for free. A new Asana account starts on a 14-day Advanced trial, and the free plan that follows has list, board and calendar for two people, without Gantt charts, rules, custom fields or AI. Notion starts on its free plan, which includes a timeline view, custom properties such as priority, dependencies and an AI trial, but no automations.
Notion is the faster app, usable about 5 seconds after launch against about 14 for Asana. Asana is the more complete task manager: rules can be written in plain English, recurring tasks repeat when completed, and its export keeps dependencies and finished in seconds, while Notion's full workspace export was still running after 25 minutes.
Both AIs created subtasks without asking, but Asana's were proper subtasks while Notion's were five untitled pages. Choose Notion if you want a fast, free setup with timelines and priorities and do not need automation; choose Asana if your team will pay for a polished, ready-made task manager.
Key differences
Asana
Notion - Plan used in our test
- Asana:14-day Advanced trial (automatic)
- Notion:Free
- Our 8 scripted tasks
- Asana:5 passed, 3 partial
- Notion:5 passed, 3 partial
- Free plan
- Asana:2 users; list, board and calendar
- Notion:Unlimited for one person; table, board, calendar and timeline; no automations
- Paid plans from
- Asana:$10.99 per user a month, billed yearly
- Notion:$10 per seat a month, billed yearly
- Cold start
- Asana:About 14 seconds
- Notion:About 5 seconds
- 200-row CSV import
- Asana:7 of 7 columns recognised; about 10 seconds
- Notion:7 of 7 columns recognised; about 10 seconds
- Rules and recurring tasks
- Asana:Rule written in plain English (paid); task repeats when completed
- Notion:Automations paid; recurring tasks are scheduled templates
- AI subtasks
- Asana:Five real subtasks, without asking
- Notion:Five untitled pages, without asking
- Full export
- Asana:Per project, instant, with dependencies
- Notion:Database CSV in seconds; workspace export unfinished after 25 minutes
- Left after uninstalling
- Asana:About 245 MB
- Notion:About 540 MB
Editor's Verdict
Choose Notion if…
Best for: Individuals and small teams who want tasks living next to their docs and wiki, and who are happy to build their own setup.
- All four views free, including a timeline; eleven view types in all
- The CSV import recognised all seven columns and imported 200 rows in about 10 seconds
- Priorities, dependencies and other custom properties are free
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 Notion completed 5.
| Task | Asana | Notion |
|---|---|---|
| P1 · Build a project | Partial≈ 9 min | Pass≈ 16 min |
| P2 · Views | Pass≈ 2 min | Pass≈ 4 min |
| P3 · Rules | Pass≈ 6 min | Partial≈ 5 min |
| P4 · 200-row import | Partial≈ 4 min | Pass≈ 3 min |
| P5 · Scale | Pass≈ 1.5 min import | Pass≈ 10 s import |
| P6 · Permissions | Pass≈ 10 min | Pass≈ 10 min |
| P7 · AI | Pass≈ 20–30 s each | Partial≈ 20–40 s each |
| P8 · Leave | Partial≈ 6 min | Partial≈ 30 min |
Asana ran on its 14-day Advanced trial, which every new account starts on; Notion ran on its free plan.
Measured on the same PC
| Measurement | Asana | Notion |
|---|---|---|
| Installer size | 177 MB | 3.8 MB |
| Install time | ≈ 20–25 s | ≈ 25 s |
| On disk | 1.1 GB | 400 MB |
| Admin rights | Not needed | Not needed |
| Starts with Windows | No | No |
| 40-task project | ≈ 9 min | ≈ 16 min |
| Views on the free plan | 3 / 4 | 4 / 4 |
| 200-row CSV import | ≈ 10 s | ≈ 10 s |
| 500-row CSV import | ≈ 1.5 min | ≈ 10 s |
| 500-task board | 0.7 s | < 1 s |
| Cold start | ≈ 14 s | ≈ 5 s |
| Memory | 1.4 – 1.8 GB | 0.9 – 1.4 GB |
| Left after uninstall | ≈ 245 MB | ≈ 540 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
Notion
+ What works
- All four views free, including a timeline; eleven view types in all
- The CSV import recognised all seven columns and imported 200 rows in about 10 seconds
- Priorities, dependencies and other custom properties are free
- Notion AI summarised our project and answered “what is overdue?” correctly
- Removing a member or cutting them to view-only took effect on their next page load
- No admin rights, no startup entry and no services
− What falls short
- No automations on the free plan
- Recurring tasks are templates that create a new page on a schedule, not tasks that repeat when completed
- Asked for subtasks, the AI created five untitled pages without asking first
- Free plan is for one person: with more members you get a limited number of blocks, and Member and Can edit roles need Plus
- Risky defaults: invites default to Workspace owner, shared pages to Full access, and anyone with your domain can join
- Pasting a list filled names and dates but left the select columns empty
- The workspace export leaves out private pages unless you switch them on
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.
Notion
Installs without a click
The web installer installed and opened Notion before we pressed Install, and sent a small event log with an anonymous device ID before we signed in. It adds no startup entry or services.
Permissive defaults
Invites default to Workspace owner, page sharing to Full access, joining by link is on, and setup pre-ticks joining for anyone with your email domain.
Marketing emails
You have to tick a box at sign-up to refuse marketing emails. Sharing workspace data to improve the AI was off by default.
Left after uninstalling
A 477 MB profile folder with the local database and logs, plus a 64 MB browser profile from the installer.
Features & Pricing
| Asana | Notion | |
|---|---|---|
| Web | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | — | — |
| iOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paid from | $10.99/mo | $10/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.
Notion plans
- Free$0
- Plus$10/seat/mo
- Business$20/seat/mo
- EnterpriseCustom
From Notion's pricing page, checked Oct 30, 2026.
Who makes them
- Company
- Asana:Asana, Inc.
- Notion:Notion Labs, Inc.
- Headquarters
- Asana:San Francisco, California, USA
- Notion:San Francisco, California, USA
- Founded
- Asana:2008
- Notion:2013
- Funding
- Asana:Public company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ASAN) through a direct listing in September 2020.
- Notion:About $343 million raised in total, including a $275 million round in October 2021 at a reported $10 billion valuation.
Timelines, official links and sources are in each review: Asana · Notion.
FAQ
Which is better, Asana or Notion?
Notion scored slightly higher in our tests, mainly for its speed and a free plan with timelines and priorities. Asana is the more complete task manager, but its rules, Gantt charts and AI are paid.
Which has the better free plan?
For one person, Notion: it includes a timeline, custom properties and dependencies. Asana's free plan covers two people with list, board and calendar views. Neither includes automations for free.
Which is faster on Windows?
Notion: usable in about 5 seconds against about 14 for Asana.
Which is easier to leave?
Asana. Its project export kept dependencies and finished instantly; Notion's full workspace export had not finished after 25 minutes, although single databases export in seconds.
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 → Notion reviewSituational 6.9 Notion was the fastest app in our project-management test: it started in about 5 seconds, imported 200 rows in 10 and drew a 500-task board instantly, and all four views, including a timeline, are free. But it is a database tool more than a task manager: there are no automations on the free plan, recurring tasks are scheduled templates, its AI turned our subtasks into untitled pages, and the free plan is built for one person. Read the full review → Project Management Alternatives
ClickUp Recommended Small teams that want lists, boards, Gantt charts, automations and AI in one free workspace and do not mind a busy, heavy app 7.4 Read reviewReview 
Airtable Situational Teams who want a flexible database behind their projects, with automations and reliable CSV in and out 6.8 Read reviewReview 
Linear Situational Software and product teams who live on the keyboard and want a fast issue tracker with a capable free AI agent 6.5 Read reviewReview 
