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Asana vs Microsoft Azure DevOps comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Asana
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Project Management Software (4th)
Microsoft Azure DevOps
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
130
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (2nd), Release Automation (1st), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Asana and Microsoft Azure DevOps aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Asana is designed for Project Management Software and holds a mindshare of 7.6%, down 11.8% compared to last year.
Microsoft Azure DevOps, on the other hand, focuses on Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites, holds 20.3% mindshare, down 26.2% since last year.
Project Management Software
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Featured Reviews

Ian Herzing - PeerSpot reviewer
Stands out with portfolios, easy setup, and real-time information, but needs big improvement when it comes to workflows, automation, and dashboards
Their workflows and automation could use a big improvement. I don't even know if they have anything in that regard right now. I would really love to see a way where you can send custom alerts based on a task's completion or status change or an approval coming through. I would love to see a way to get some low-code functionality into Asana because right now, that is a big miss. On top of that, their dashboards are incredibly lacking. The way the widgets connect to the projects, they don't pull the data in the way that I really want them to. When I build a dashboard in Asana versus Smartsheet, I can't pull in data via a custom text field in Asana, but in Smartsheet, I can. That's a huge advantage because sometimes, you just want to report on really niche tasks or a launch date in a specific project or a collection of projects, and Smartsheet's dashboard features will let you do that, but Asana won't. So, their dashboards are lacking, and the workflows are pretty below where the market is right now. I would love to see a complete revamp of how they do dashboards right now. Dashboards are really poor. They don't display information well, and they don't look good. They don't pull in data in an advanced search kind of way. They are very simplistic. If you're a traditional project manager and you're PMP certified and you understand project management, you're going to be very frustrated with Asana's dashboards because they do not speak the language of project management. That's because of the way they are set up. So, I would like to see that completely revamped. It's just not an industry standard.
Akshat Prakash - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows us to deploy code to production without releasing certain features immediately and agile project management capabilities offer resource-leveling
My company has experienced benefits from using it or from recent updates in Azure Pipelines. For instance, we can manage different code versions from the same repository across different environments. We also use feature flags; the code is deployed, but the feature can be made visible to the end user at a later time. Additionally, as part of the deployment, we integrate automated and regression testing, which stops the deployment if testing fails, thus preventing regression bugs. This saves time and increases productivity by reducing the need for manual testing. Lastly, it integrates with the project management aspects, allowing us to link code deployments with project milestones. Azure DevOps supported our shift towards DevOps culture or practices. We shifted to the cloud environment and started migrating from our data centers about eight or nine years back. It has been a long journey. However, we have used Azure DevOps for almost five to six years in every project. We also use automation testing in Azure, so we have an integrated test suite that allows us to perform functional and regression testing effectively via the Azure DevOps system.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The initial setup is straightforward. It was just a few clicks to get started and to integrate Asana into our existing business system. It took 15 days to fully implement our projects using Asana."
"I love the way it monitors all of the current and past projects, and it sends notifications to keep everything on the track."
"Asana has a wonderful user experience that is very easy to interact with and has tons of integrations with other products and tools."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its project management tracking systems."
"This solution is easier and faster to use compared to Jira. It's not very structured and you can add sub-tasks and issues easily."
"It is stable and easy to set up."
"The general UI shows progress and data analytics for all projects in progress."
"What I like most about Asana is its simplicity. For example: we're not the only ones using it, and we onboard our customers to it, and normally, they have no questions."
"The most valuable feature is the complete integration between test cases, pipelines, and issue management."
"Microsoft Azure DevOps integrates well with other components, such as Synapse, which is a data warehouse tool of Azure. It is a framework platform for BI and integrated with other tools, such as Power BI."
"Before using this solution, we had to deploy our applications, from pre-production to production, manually."
"The available Kanban board is the best feature for management decisions."
"It is stable. I like Azure a lot. All our guys are Microsoft certified."
"It is good for the purpose it is designed for. It is good for maintaining a repository of application code, creating pipelines for deploying the code, building the code, and deploying the code. It can be easily used by developers. There are no issues."
"Microsoft Azure DevOps has been very good for creating pipelines, and all the solutions for creating task management for developers and for the business."
"Detailed logs allow us to pinpoint the exact cause of any issues, making troubleshooting efficient and accurate."
 

Cons

"I rate the support from Asana a four out of five."
"Their workflows and automation could use a big improvement. I don't even know if they have anything in that regard right now. I would really love to see a way where you can send custom alerts based on a task's completion or status change or an approval coming through. I would love to see a way to get some low-code functionality into Asana because right now, that is a big miss."
"More features can be added."
"There is room for improvement in integrating Asana with different technology vendors."
"It's difficult to have short-term collaborations with external users because the operations team owns the final licenses, and I work for marketing."
"We don't get enough notifications."
"You need to have an action plan, otherwise, it won't be as effective."
"In Asana, there's no way to add a custom date field."
"Microsoft Azure DevOps doesn't have an ITSM tool compared to its competitors."
"The tool was developed for Agile project methodology, but I've noticed that there has also been a try to incorporate what is typically done in MS Project, which is for more sequential Waterfall projects. The problem with that is that it is half-baked for Waterfall projects. If you're going to do it, then either go all the way and allow us to use the tool for both or don't do it at all."
"As for improvement, the first one is pricing. For us, luckily because we are partners, it's free. Microsoft gold partners do not have to pay, but if you're not a partner, the product is very expensive."
"The functions have too much dependency right now, so it makes it really, really hard to upgrade and make a change in the code."
"The documentation isn't straightforward."
"With an ecosystem that has been up and running for some time, you won't have the full-flexibility that you would have with a new ecosystem."
"There could more integration with other platforms."
"The solution could be made faster because it can be a little unnerving to browse through too many pages and press too many buttons."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, I think it's an affordable option for mid to large-sized companies."
"There is a free version of Asana, but we use the paid version to receive all the features we want. The overall price is reasonable."
"It has a free version."
"Its price is fair. Its licensing cost is cheaper than Microsoft Project. I would rate it a two out of five in terms of pricing."
"We paid a monthly licensing fee for the product."
"The price of this solution makes it quite accessible, and the plans fit my budget."
"I can describe Asana's pricing as a sweet spot since it is neither very high nor very low, especially regarding the value Asana adds to its products...In our company, we use 50 percent of the features provided by Asana, because of which we only pay 50 percent of Asana's total cost."
"We're on the business tier, which is $25 a month if you're on an annual contract. It's $31 if you're on a month-to-month contract. In my experience, there are no hidden costs with Asana. I know Smartsheet has these add-ons that you can buy, which is an additional cost, but Asana doesn't have any add-ons that I know of. When you're trying to scale the product and want to add users, you have to do it in buckets of five. This is also something to consider."
"The price is reasonable for the solution."
"The cost is quite affordable."
"For the basic license, it is around five euros per month."
"There are other solutions available that are open source and free, such as GitLab."
"I don't know what we pay, but I do know what I've seen online. If we switched to JIRA, we will basically have to double our costs because we still have to pay for the DevOps licensing. We're probably spending $100 a month on it. It has only standard licensing fees."
"There is a licensing fee of $6/user per month."
"The reason that customers are going to the cloud is that it provides the ability to reduce the license cost. For example, when purchasing Office 365 it is bundled with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and many other applications. In the past, purchasing a license was approximately $600. Today it's only $35 or $45 per customer, per client, or per user, plus the storage. It's less expensive for companies today, to use something, such as Microsoft Azure DevOps, and provide the software to all the employees needing a license. It's better to go with the cloud than just to buy the licenses by themselves."
"The price of the solution is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
59%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Manufacturing Company
3%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Asana?
The solution's user interface is very good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Asana?
Asana is overpriced based on its offering. On a personal level, I would not recommend it to myself. Due to its cost, I wouldn't select Asana if I were to buy a single license for managing my projects.
What needs improvement with Asana?
There is room for improvement in integrating Asana with different technology vendors. The reporting and exportation of project results need enhancement. The interface has drawbacks, such as the req...
Which is better - Jira or Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Jira is a great centralized tool for just about everything, from local team management to keeping track of products and work logs. It is easy to implement and navigate, and it is stable and scalabl...
Which is better - TFS or Azure DevOps?
TFS and Azure DevOps are different in many ways. TFS was designed for admins, and only offers incremental improvements. In addition, TFS seems complicated to use and I don’t think it has a very fri...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Valuable features for project management and tracking in Azure DevOps include a portal displaying test results, check-in/check-out activity, and developer/tester productivity.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Azure DevOps, VSTS, Visual Studio Team Services, MS Azure DevOps
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Uber, Vodaphone, NASA, Spotify, Lyft, Baggu, Udacity, Patreon, Flipboard, Dropbox, Intel, Samsung, Airbnb, SFMoma, Hubspot, Trivago
Alaska Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Columbia, Skype
Find out what your peers are saying about monday.com, Microsoft, Atlassian and others in Project Management Software. Updated: January 2025.
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