Should you build your own Asana?
Track team work through projects, tasks, owners, dependencies, and status updates
The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Asana, track team work through projects, tasks, owners, dependencies, and status updates. The hard boundary is large integration ecosystem, automation, reporting, permissions, and organizational trust, plus collaboration, integrations, and organizational trust.
ENOriginal research content in English. Original prompt preserved in English.
Build a personal replacement for Asana in an empty repository.
Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and Docker Compose; do not offer alternative stacks.
The core loop is: plan and track team work through projects, tasks, owners, dependencies, milestones, status updates, comments, and a searchable activity history for a small team.
Make the first run work locally with one documented command.
Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward.
Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials.
Implement organizations, projects, members, issues, labels, cycles, and milestones.
Provide list, kanban, and simple timeline views backed by one canonical issue model.
Add comments, mentions, assignments, watchers, and a complete activity log.
Implement project roles for owner, member, and viewer and test every mutation.
Add search, CSV import or export, email notifications, and daily database backups.
Ship Docker Compose, health checks, migrations, seed data, and an admin recovery command.
Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states.
Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs.
Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path.
Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps.
Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane.
Deliberately leave out hundreds of external integrations.
Deliberately leave out enterprise portfolio planning and SSO.
Deliberately leave out native mobile clients and vendor-operated uptime.
Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used.The prompt opens pre-filled in your agent. Review it before running. · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR
What would building your own look like?
Plan and track team work through projects, tasks, owners, dependencies, milestones, status updates, comments, and a searchable activity history for a small team.
What you will need
- Docker
- PostgreSQL
- self-hosted server
- email credentials for invitations
People still pay for Asana because teams pay because project state has to remain authoritative through staff changes, outages, and years of accumulated workflow exceptions. The recurring cost buys auth, permissions, notifications, search, migrations, audit history, integrations, backups, and uptime, not just the visible interface.
xlarge integration ecosystem, automation, reporting, permissions, and organizational trust
xdeep integrations
xenterprise permissions
xlarge-scale reporting
xbattle-tested notifications and mobile apps
Prefer something ready-made?
PlaneLinear-and-Jira-shaped work tracking without the subscription; the stack behind it is not smallOpen source↗
OpenProjectThe enterprise project suite; free in money, expensive in menusOpen source↗
LeantimeA small-team project suite that remembers goals and timesheets, not just ticketsOpen source↗View all 5 alternatives to Asana →· Licença, instalação e limitações em cada alternativa.
How much does Asana cost?
- Monthly billing
- $13.49/mo$13.49/mo · per person
- Per year
- $162/yr$162/yr
- Annual billing
- $132/yr19% cheaper than paying monthly
- On a Brazilian card, with 3.5% IOF
- R$70.49/moR$689/yr
Saved to My list. You will see a notice on this site when the price changes.
You complete the purchase on Asana’s site. Vibe Radar does not handle payments.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| personal | $0/user | $0/user | Up to 2 users; unlimited tasks, projects, messages, activity logs and file storage; 100 MB maximum per file |
| starter | $13.49/user≈ $13.49 | $10.99/user≈ $10.99 | Unlimited users, automations and free guests; 50,000 AI Studio Basic credits per billing account/month |
| advanced | $30.49/user≈ $30.49 | $24.99/user≈ $24.99 | Unlimited users/automations/free guests; 75,000 AI Studio Basic credits per billing account/month; portfolios, goals and workload |
| enterprise | custom | - | Custom seats and controls; 200,000 AI Studio Basic credits per billing account/month; SAML, SCIM and service accounts |
| enterprise+ | custom | - | Enterprise features plus advanced compliance, audit and data-control capabilities |
Free tierUp to 2 users, unlimited tasks/projects/messages/activity logs/storage, and 100 MB per uploaded file
Billing termsmonthly + annual; paid subscriptions auto-renew and standard purchases are non-refundable
Additional costsSeat quantities are sold in increments: 2–5 by 1, through 30 by 5, through 100 by 10, through 500 by 25, then by 50. Timesheets & Budgets costs $5.99/user/month billed annually. AI Studio Plus is separately paid and AI Studio Pro is annual-only; public prices were not exposed. Taxes may apply.
verified 2026-10-20 · source ↗
Is it cheaper to build or buy Asana?
Adjust the numbers: hours to build, your hourly rate, running costs and the subscription price.
Over 24 months, subscribing is cheaper.
Starting hours estimated from the analysis (multi-day). Does not price what you give up (support, integrations, security).
Can I rebuild Asana?
Kinda. The core of Asana is buildable in a weekend with the prompt on this page, but there are real gaps: large integration ecosystem, automation, reporting, permissions, and organizational trust, deep integrations. Read the honest list above before committing.
How much does Asana cost?
Asana costs about $13.49/mo (Starter, checked 10/20/2026), which is $132 per year.
What do I lose by replacing Asana?
Honestly: large integration ecosystem, automation, reporting, permissions, and organizational trust; deep integrations; enterprise permissions; large-scale reporting; battle-tested notifications and mobile apps. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Asana?
Yes: Plane (Linear-and-Jira-shaped work tracking without the subscription; the stack behind it is not small) OpenProject (The enterprise project suite; free in money, expensive in menus) Leantime (A small-team project suite that remembers goals and timesheets, not just tickets) All 5 curated free alternatives are at https://viberadar.si/asana/alternatives. The prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.