elean vs Asana
Simpler by design.
Cheaper by a lot.
Asana Starter charges $10.99 per user per month. A team of 15 pays $165 every month — forever. elean River is $29 flat, for the whole team.
$165/mo
for 15 users at $10.99/user (annual) — scales up with every new hire
$29/mo
for up to 20 seats included — flat rate, no per-seat surprises as your team grows
Why elean
Where elean pulls ahead
5.7× cheaper for 15 users
Asana Starter charges $10.99 per user per month (billed annually). A team of 15 pays $165 every month. elean River is $29 flat — same team, same work.
Custom RBAC for $29 vs $375+/mo
elean River includes custom roles and granular permissions at $29/mo flat. Asana's comparable permission controls sit on Advanced — $24.99/user, or $375/mo for 15 people. Audit logs go even further: Asana gates those behind Enterprise+, custom pricing only.
7 free seats vs 2
Asana's free Personal plan caps out at 2 collaborators. elean Stream is free for up to 7 — enough for a real founding team to actually get started together, not just one person taking notes.
Feature comparison
Everything side by side.
| Feature | elean | Asana |
|---|---|---|
| Projects & Tasks | ||
| Kanban view | ||
| Table / list view | ||
| Timeline / Gantt | Starter+ | |
| Custom fields | Starter+ | |
| Forms | Starter+ | |
| Portfolios & Goals | Advanced only | |
| Subtasks | ||
| Custom statuses | Limited | |
| Task history / activity | ||
| Collaboration | ||
| Real-time sync | ||
| Comments & @mentions | ||
| Email notifications | ||
| Multi-assignees | River+ | Single owner only (by design) |
| Security & Admin | ||
| Role-based permissions | River+ | Basic (Starter), fuller control on Advanced |
| Audit logs | River+ | Enterprise+ only (custom pricing) |
| GDPR / data export | ||
| 2FA | ||
| Developer | ||
| REST API | All plans | All plans |
| Pricing (15 users) | ||
| Free plan | 7 users, 10 projects | 2 users |
| Paid plan / month | $29 flat | $165 ($10.99/user, billed annually) |
| Per-user pricing | ||
| Flat-rate pricing | ||
* Asana Starter/Advanced pricing shown is billed annually; monthly billing is higher. Pricing as of 2026.
Choose elean if…
- Your team is 3–20 people and you want predictable pricing
- You need custom RBAC and audit logs without an Enterprise contract
- You want a tool your team can learn in an afternoon
- You'd rather assign a task to more than one person when that's how the work actually happens
- You care about a flat rate that doesn't grow with every new hire
Choose Asana if…
- You need portfolios, goals, and cross-team reporting
- Your workflow depends on custom fields, forms, or timeline view
- You're a large org that can absorb Enterprise pricing for audit logs and SSO
- You want the DRI (single-owner) model enforced on every task
- You rely on a large third-party integration ecosystem