Cross-team work management
Asana
Built to coordinate projects and goals across business teams, with agile and bug-tracking templates for engineering.
COMPARE Project Simple vs Asana
Asana manages tasks. Project Simple runs AI product delivery.
Unlike Asana's task-centric approach, Project Simple connects the entire product lifecycle in a single
out-of-the-box platform, with built-in workflows, delivery analytics, and MCP-powered AI agents.
Product Operating Model for AI-DLC
Project Simple
Built to run the whole lifecycle — goals, roadmap, delivery, quality and forecasting — for every team on the project, out of the box.
The short version
Different tools for different jobs. Here’s the honest answer.
Choose Asana if…
most of your work is cross-functional business projects and engineering mainly needs a shared place to see tasks.
Choose Project Simple if…
software delivery is the core of your business and you want Engineering, QA, DevOps, UI/UX and Marketing on one prescriptive delivery model.
Teams switch when…
engineering keeps its real process in another tool, goals and portfolios sit behind a higher plan, and AI credits run out fast.
Where Asana shines
- Polished, easy-to-adopt work management that business teams love
- Goals, portfolios and workload planning on the Advanced plan
- Integrations with Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Slack and Microsoft Teams
Where teams hit a wall
- Everything exists as templates and custom workflows, not a delivery model
- No unified view of delivery across product, engineering, and supporting teams.
- Quality gates and delivery forecasting aren’t part of the model
- AI runs on pooled credits that active AI users can use up quickly
Feature by feature
What you get out of the box, and
what you’d have to add.
| Capability | Asana | Project Simple |
|---|---|---|
| Operating Model |
Asana Build it yourself
Flexible work management; agile via templates and custom workflows |
Project Simple Built in
A proven Product Operating Model, ready on day one |
| Roadmaps & Goals |
Asana Higher tier
Goals and portfolios on Advanced and above |
Project Simple Built in
Now / Next / Later Roadmap tied to Goals and Milestones |
| Delivery Forecasting |
Asana Limited
Delivery Forecasting isn’t a core feature |
Project Simple Built in
AI forecasts completion timelines and flags delivery risks |
| Quality Discipline |
Asana Limited
Bug tracking via templates; no quality gates |
Project Simple Built in
Quality gates, bug waterlines, incident thresholds, and 5 Whys root-cause analysis |
| Sprint Analytics & Reviews |
Asana Basic
Sprint templates and reporting dashboards |
Project Simple Built in
Sprint, Backlog, Item and Project Analytics with automated Sprint Reviews and AI insights |
| Retros & Team Health |
Asana Templates
Retrospectives via templates |
Project Simple Built in
Built-in retrospectives and team health-check surveys |
| Timesheets |
Asana Higher tier
Time tracking on Advanced and above |
Project Simple Built in
Built-in time tracking for CapEx / OpEx with financial reporting |
| Cross-functional Teams |
Asana Varies
Strong for business teams; engineering fits in |
Project Simple Built in
Dev, QA, UI/UX, DevOps and Marketing working one way in one product |
| AI Pricing |
Asana Metered
AI Studio runs on pooled account credits |
Project Simple Built in
Bring your own LLM keys — no AI-token markup |
| Deployment |
Asana Cloud
Cloud service |
Project Simple Built in
Cloud, isolated tenant, your own cloud, or on-prem |
Based on Asana’s public product and pricing pages as of October 2026. Plans and features change — check the vendor’s site for the latest.
The real cost
Asana's license cost is just the beginning. Project Simple comes ready to run.
| What you pay for | Asana | Project Simple |
|---|---|---|
| Base license | Asana $10.99 – $24.99 per user / month (Starter – Advanced) | Project Simple $1,000 – $1,500 / month per 100-person team |
| Goals, portfolios & time tracking | Asana Advanced plan and up | Project Simple Included |
| AI | Asana Included credits, then Plus at $150 / month per 100K credits | Project Simple Your own LLM keys, no markup |
| Setup, configuration & maintenance | Asana Custom workflows, integrations, ongoing administration and consulting costs | Project Simple Zero configuration. Ready out of the box. |
| Total per month | Asana ≈ $10,000 – $10,650+ | Project Simple $1,000 – $1,500 |
Asana prices are annual list prices as published in 2026.
Switching from Asana
Up and running by your next sprint.
-
Step 1
Bring your backlog
Export your work and we’ll help you import it and set up the integrations you rely on.
-
Step 2
Set goals and teams
Define your roadmap goals and add your teams. The operating model, dashboards and analytics are already there.
-
Step 3
Start the next sprint
Run your next sprint in Project Simple. Forecasts and insights build from day one.
“We have many teams across a large set of development projects. Project Simple truly stands for its name — but don’t take its value for granted. While simple, it’s so much more.”
Michael Fridshtand
CTO, Epic Charging
FAQ
Questions teams ask before switching
Can business teams keep working alongside engineering?
Yes. Project Simple’s Marketing Teams module tracks product marketing work inside the same Product Goals, so launches and delivery stay in one view.
How does AI pricing work?
We don’t charge per token or per AI action. AI capabilities come with the Enterprise plan, and you connect your own existing LLM provider’s API keys — OpenAI, Anthropic or another.
Can Project Simple run in our own environment?
Yes. Choose an isolated multi-tenant setup, a dedicated instance in your own AWS or GCP account, or an on-prem deployment in your private cloud or data center.
Ready to move past Asana?
See the Product Operating Model for AI-DLC running on real delivery data. Zero setup required.
