AsanaChoose when you need
- Mature list, board, timeline, Gantt, portfolio, goal, and workload planning
- Forms, approvals, proofing, rules, reporting, and a large integration ecosystem
- Cloud plans designed for cross-functional work at scale
Asana vs Kanera
Choose Asana for deep portfolio and capacity planning. Choose Kanera for board-led execution, reporting, notes, and client collaboration.
Already looking to move? Read the case for Kanera as a Asana alternative
The decision
Start with what your team needs.
KaneraChoose when you need
- A focused Home plus modern boards with shared workspace structure
- Table reporting, Global Work, Portfolio, Work Done, and nested notes
- REST API, managed webhooks, native MCP, and self-hosting with full feature parity
Best fit
Compare portfolio planning with connected execution.
Asana centres portfolio planning
Asana includes timelines, Gantt, dependencies, portfolios, goals, workload, approvals, proofing, forms, and unlimited free guests on Starter.
Kanera connects the work itself
Kanera combines shared board structure, Table view, Global Work, Portfolio drill-downs, progress reporting, notes, automation, integrations, and scoped board guests.
Kanera pricing
A simple starting point.
Try the complete Pro product for 30 days, then choose Free or one full-featured hosted plan.
- Free
- $0 for up to 4 members
- Pro monthly
- $5 per user
- Pro annual
- $49 per user
Feature comparison
Asana vs Kanera at a glance
Asana centres portfolio and capacity planning. Kanera connects day-to-day planning, ownership, context, progress, and automation across project boards.
- Included
- Partial or plan-gated
- Not available
| Feature | Asana Portfolio work management | |
|---|---|---|
| Views & Planning | ||
| Board view | Included. Board view presents project sections as columns with task cards. | Included. Kanban boards with drag-and-drop cards, collapsible lists, per-list sorting, list icons and colours, and card covers. |
| Table view | Included. List view is a primary project surface with sections, fields, subtasks, filters, sorting, and bulk editing. | Included. An editable table on boards and across Global Work, with filtering, grouping, custom columns, Sum and Avg calculations, second-dimension breakdowns, saved setup, and Excel or JSON export. |
| Calendar view | Included. Calendar view is included, with Timeline and Gantt available on Starter and above. | Included. A calendar for dated cards with month and week ranges, Today navigation, filtering, due-time slots, and card actions in place, on boards and across Global Work. |
| Daily focus and cross-project visibility | Included. My Tasks, portfolios, goals, workload, dashboards, and universal reporting span projects and teams. | Included. Home combines deadlines, recent boards, weekly activity, and progress. Global Work adds My Cards, Team Cards, Portfolio, and Work Done across accessible boards. |
| Personal and team priority queues | Partial or plan-gated. My Tasks gathers assigned work across projects, supports personal sections and drag ordering, and can group or sort by priority. It is a strong personal prioritization surface but not a manager-curated queue for each teammate. | Included. Up next keeps one ranked order across boards. Open your drawer anywhere, add, reorder, complete, or remove assigned cards in My Cards, filter to queued work, and manage permitted teammate queues from a focused dock or Team Cards grid and table views. |
| Cards & Work | ||
| Work item detail | Included. Tasks include subtasks, dependencies, milestones, assignees, dates, fields, attachments, comments, and approvals. | Included. Cards hold markdown descriptions with change diffs, due dates and time slots, assignees, labels, custom fields, attachments, covers, comments, checklists, watchers, and attributed activity. |
| Custom fields | Included. Custom fields support standardised project data, with advanced controls and field types depending on plan. | Included. Text, number, checkbox, date, URL, select, and user fields, with multi-value select and user fields, owned by one board or shared across a workspace. |
| Checklists | Partial or plan-gated. Subtasks provide independently assigned and dated work; Kanera provides reusable checklist templates with item assignees, dates, descriptions, and sub-checklists. | Included. Reusable checklist templates with item assignees, due dates, descriptions, and one level of sub-checklists. Assigned items surface in Home, My Cards, and focused Team Cards. |
| Bulk editing | Included. Multi-select supports changes to assignees, dates, fields, project membership, dependencies, and more. | Included. Selected cards can change dates, labels, assignees, custom fields, completion, location, copies, or archive state together. |
| Structure & Workflow | ||
| Independent projects | Included. Projects can have their own sections, views, fields, rules, members, and privacy. | Included. Standalone boards keep their own lists, labels, fields, templates, automations, permissions, and settings. |
| Shared structure | Included. Portfolios, bundles, templates, field libraries, goals, and organisation controls coordinate work across projects. | Included. Workspace boards can reuse lists, labels, fields, checklist templates, automations, and reporting. |
| Automation | Included. Rules, forms, templates, bundles, and integrations automate intake and workflow; allowances vary by plan. | Included. Six card triggers drive ordered actions across labels, assignees, checklist templates, due dates, custom field writes, moves, and completion, at board or workspace level. |
| Reporting | Included. Dashboards, universal reporting, portfolios, workload, goals, and status updates are substantially broader. | Included. Table calculations and breakdowns, Portfolio rollups and drill-downs, Work Done history, saved Global Work views, and Excel or JSON export cover operational reporting. |
| One-way board syncing | Partial or plan-gated. Multi-homing places one task in several projects, with every change reflected everywhere. It is one shared task rather than a one-way destination copy with local ownership. | Included. Selected source lists can feed linked copies on another board, keeping shared card content and mapped workflow context current one way. |
| Collaboration & Access | ||
| Collaboration | Included. Task comments, mentions, messages, status updates, approvals, proofing, and attachments support cross-functional review. | Included. Comments with mentions, quote replies, and thumbs-up acknowledgement, plus attachments, realtime updates, presence, and an attributed activity history beside the work. |
| External access | Included. Starter lists unlimited free guests; permissions and access depend on the project and organisation configuration. | Partial or plan-gated. Pro keeps guests board-scoped: the first board is free, while a second or later board uses one purchased seat in total. Hosted Free has no guests, and self-hosted has no seat gate. |
| Notes and context | Partial or plan-gated. Project briefs, status updates, task descriptions, and integrations carry context, but Asana is not a full wiki. | Included. Scratchpad keeps autosaved work in progress private to one person. Personal and shared Notes add nested trees, attachments, search, and card backlinks for durable context. |
| Notifications | Included. Inbox, email, browser, desktop, and mobile preferences cover project and task activity. | Included. An in-app drawer plus per-type delivery to email, browser push, ntfy, Gotify, or your own signed webhook, with per-workspace pause and scoping rules, card and board watching, mentions, assignments, and due dates. The drawer, email, push, and rules are on every plan; ntfy, Gotify, and personal webhooks need Pro or self-hosted. |
| Data & Migration | ||
| API and webhooks | Included. REST API, webhooks, app components, OAuth, and integrations support custom workflows. | Included. Scoped API keys, a REST API, event-selective webhooks, and built-in Slack, Discord, Telegram, and Zulip chat destinations, all with delivery history, retries, pausing, and secret rotation. Included in Pro and self-hosted; hosted Free has none of them. |
| AI integration | Included. Asana AI features are packaged across paid plans and enterprise offerings. | Partial or plan-gated. A native MCP server with OAuth gives compatible AI clients scoped access to live Kanera context and documentation search; AI is not built into the app. |
| Deployment | Not available. Asana is cloud hosted and does not offer a self-hosted edition. | Included. Hosted plans, or a source-available Docker Compose deployment under Elastic License 2.0 with full feature parity and no Kanera per-seat self-hosting fee. |
| Import and export | Partial or plan-gated. CSV import and third-party migration paths are available. Kanera has no native Asana importer. | Partial or plan-gated. Reviewable Trello and Kanera JSON import, Excel and JSON export, plus assisted planning and APIs for custom migrations. |
| Where each tool draws the line | ||
| Timeline, Gantt, and dependencies | Included. Starter adds Timeline, Gantt, and task dependencies. | Not available. Not included. Kanera plans with due dates, Calendar, and Table. There are no Gantt bars, baselines, or dependency links between cards. |
| Time tracking and workload | Included. Starter includes time tracking, Advanced compares estimated with actual time, and Workload arrives from Advanced. | Not available. No timer and no capacity planning. Numeric custom fields hold estimates or hours, and Table can sum or average them by group. |
| Request forms | Included. Forms are included from Starter, with rules for routing intake. | Not available. No form builder. Intake arrives through cards, one-way board syncing, or the REST API. |
| Sign-in and provisioning | Included. Enterprise adds SAML single sign-on and SCIM user provisioning. | Partial or plan-gated. Email and password sign-in with organisation, workspace, and board roles. No SAML, OIDC, or SCIM for user accounts yet; AI clients authenticate to MCP with OAuth. |
| Apps and offline use | Included. Native desktop and mobile apps. | Partial or plan-gated. Installable PWA on desktop, iOS, and Android with offline board browsing, push notifications, and share-to-card. No native app-store builds. |
| Interface languages | Included. A localised interface is available in several languages. | Not available. English only today. |
Competitor details checked August 11, 2026. Asana pricing, Asana My Tasks, Asana feature list, Asana multi-homing. Features and packaging can change.
Where Kanera
takes a different path.
Review progress without building dashboards
Work Done shows a 60-day daily history of created, moved, and completed cards plus finished checklist items.
See work at every level
Use Home for today, My Cards and Team Cards for execution, and Portfolio for cross-board health and metric drill-downs.
Keep context at the right level
Use Scratchpad for private work in progress, then move durable material into personal or team Notes.
Choose independent or shared boards
Keep boards fully independent, or reuse lists, labels, fields, checklist templates, and automations across a workspace.
Mirror client work one way
Map source lists into another board so an internal team gets working copies, with local assignees and dates and no custom API bridge.
Connect the stack and keep control
Use scoped API keys, managed webhooks, and MCP, and export reports to Excel or JSON. Self-host the same product when deployment control matters.
Bring a real project into the evaluation.
There is no native importer today. Begin with one representative project and review how sections, assignees, custom fields, comments, and attachments should map.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kanera a direct replacement for Asana?
Yes, for teams whose work runs through boards, shared workflows, cross-project ownership, reporting, notes, automation, and integrations.
Kanera does not currently include native Gantt, task dependencies, portfolio goals, workload planning, time tracking, forms, approvals, or proofing.
Does Kanera have timeline or Gantt views?
No. Kanera includes Board, Table, Calendar, ranked Up next queues, My Cards, Team Cards, Portfolio, and Work Done. Asana adds Timeline, Gantt, and dependencies from Starter.
What does Asana do that Kanera does not?
Asana adds Timeline, Gantt, and dependencies from Starter, time tracking, Forms intake, Workload from Advanced, goals and portfolios, approvals and proofing, native apps, a localised interface, and SAML SSO with SCIM on Enterprise.
Kanera covers day-to-day delivery instead: shared board structure, Table reporting with Excel export, Global Work, Portfolio rollups, Work Done history, notes, automations, webhooks, and MCP.
Does Kanera support external collaborators?
Yes. Kanera Pro includes board guests with access limited to selected boards. A guest's first board is free; access to a second or later board uses one purchased seat in total.
Can Kanera import Asana projects?
Not natively today. Start with one representative project and contact us to review how sections, assignees, custom fields, comments, and attachments should map.
See whether Kanera
fits your team.
Try the full product for 30 days. No card required.
No card required, 30-day Pro trial, free plan available