Tool matchup
Asana vs Clockify — project management or time tracking? Most consultants need both, but which one is the anchor tool?
Project management platform with boards, timelines, goals, and automation. Organize client deliverables, track milestones, and coordinate with subcontractors.
Prices checked October 28, 2026asana.com pricing page
Time tracking and timesheets with a free tier for up to 5 users, billable reporting on paid plans, and solid project tracking for consulting work.
Prices checked June 2, 2026clockify.me pricing page
Asana and Clockify serve different operational needs, and most consultants will use one of each type rather than choosing between them. Asana is a project management tool. It tracks what needs to happen, who owns it, and when it is due. The free Personal plan covers up to 2 users with unlimited tasks and list, board, and calendar views — enough for a solo consultant plus one collaborator. Where Asana excels is multi-project visibility: on the Advanced plan, portfolios show all active client engagements at a glance. Clockify is a time tracking tool. It tracks how long work actually takes, generates timesheets, and produces billable-hours reports. The free plan is genuinely unlimited — unlimited users, unlimited projects, unlimited tracking — which makes it the default time tracker for budget-conscious consultants. The real question is which tool is your anchor. If your practice bills by deliverable or fixed fee, Asana is the anchor (you need to manage what is delivered). Time tracking is secondary and Clockify fills that gap cheaply. If your practice bills hourly, Clockify is the anchor (accurate time data drives revenue). Project management can be lighter — even a simple board in Notion. For consultants who need both: use Asana for project structure and Clockify for time data. They integrate via Zapier or Clockify's native Asana integration that lets you start timers from Asana tasks.
Clockify leads by 1 points (close call).
Decision shortcuts
Client-ready brief
Send a concise summary of winner, trade-offs, and rollout recommendation.
Best fit
Best for: Consultants managing multi-phase engagements with multiple stakeholders.
Why pick it: The free Personal plan covers you plus one collaborator with unlimited tasks and projects. Starter adds timelines, automations and unlimited free guests, so clients can follow the project without a paid seat.
Watch for: If your projects are simple (3-5 tasks), a shared Notion doc is lighter. Asana shines when you have 10+ tasks with dependencies and deadlines.
Best for: Solo consultants and small teams (up to 5) who want free time tracking — or anyone who'll pay from $3.99/user/mo for billable hours and exports.
Why pick it: A free tier for micro-teams and a low $3.99/user/mo entry make it easy to adopt. The interface is simple enough that people who usually resist timesheets actually stick with it.
Watch for: If your team is larger than 5, the free tier no longer covers you, and billable-hour tracking now needs a paid plan. If you want billing baked into your project tool, an integrated tracker may fit better.
Swipe sideways to compare all columns.
Asana | Clockify | |
|---|---|---|
| Quick facts | ||
| Pricing sanity | Free, paid from $10.99/mo | Free, paid from $3.99/mo |
| Setup speed | 30 min setup | 5 min setup |
| Integrations | 4+ | 5+ |
| Score breakdown | ||
| Outcome fit | 21/25 | 20/25 |
| Setup speed | 14/20 | 18/20 |
| Pricing sanity | 11/15 | 13/15 |
| Integrations | 14/15 | 11/15 |
| UX polish | 13/15 | 13/15 |
| Trust & support | 10/10 | 9/10 |
| Summary | ||
| Best for | Consultants managing multi-phase engagements with multiple stakeholders. | Solo consultants and small teams (up to 5) who want free time tracking — or anyone who'll pay from $3.99/user/mo for billable hours and exports. |
| Key strength | Strong on trust | Strong on setup speed |
| Main weakness | Slower to set up | Fewer integrations |
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Limits (vendor's wording) |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | Free | Up to 2 users; unlimited tasks and projects; list, board and calendar views; 100+ integrations. Accounts created before Nov 12, 2025 keep the legacy plan with up to 10 seats |
| Starter | $10.99 per user / month, billed annually$13.49 per user / month, billed monthly | No user limit, 2-seat minimum (no 1-user paid plans); timeline and Gantt views, workflow builder and automations, forms, custom fields, reporting dashboards, unlimited free guests |
| Advanced | $24.99 per user / month, billed annually$30.49 per user / month, billed monthly | Everything in Starter plus portfolios, goals, native time tracking, resource management, approvals and proofing; 2-seat minimum |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | Contact sales; SAML and SCIM user provisioning, capacity planning, 24/7 support and a 99.9% uptime SLA |
| Enterprise+ | Contact sales | Contact sales; everything in Enterprise plus compliance tooling (audit log API, SIEM, DLP and eDiscovery integrations) and opt-in HIPAA support |
Prices checked October 28, 2026asana.com pricing page
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | Free |
| Basic | $3.99 per seat / month, billed annually$4.99 per seat / month, billed monthly |
Prices checked June 2, 2026clockify.me pricing page
Cost calculator
No paid plan with a listed Annual price fits this team size. Contact sales or check the vendor's page.
$3.99 per month · $47.88 per year
Cheapest plan that fits: Basic, $3.99 per seat or user
Uses list prices from each vendor's pricing page, before tax and discounts. Free plans and custom-quote plans are left out.
Method
Used by consultants
From a consultant who wrote about this tool. This does not affect the score.
Common questions
Only on the Advanced plan and above ($24.99/user/mo billed annually, $30.49 monthly, 2-seat minimum). On the free Personal and Starter plans you track time through integrations such as Clockify. For most consultants, pairing free Asana with free Clockify is more cost-effective.
Yes. The core time tracking is unlimited — users, projects, and tracking. Paid plans ($3.99-$11.99/user/mo) add features like time-off tracking, budgets, GPS tracking, and custom invoicing.
Clockify scores 84/100 and Asana scores 83/100 on Curalo's consultant rubric. The biggest gap is Setup speed: Clockify 18/20 vs 14/20.
Asana's cheapest paid plan is Starter at $10.99 per user / month, billed annually. Clockify's cheapest paid plan is Basic at $3.99 per seat / month, billed annually.
Asana has a free plan (Personal): Up to 2 users; unlimited tasks and projects; list, board and calendar views; 100+ integrations. Accounts created before Nov 12, 2025 keep the legacy plan with up to 10 seats. Clockify has a free plan.
Asana: no paid plan with a listed price for one user. Clockify: $3.99 a month on Basic. Annual list prices where available, before tax.
If your projects are simple (3-5 tasks), a shared Notion doc is lighter. Asana shines when you have 10+ tasks with dependencies and deadlines.
If your team is larger than 5, the free tier no longer covers you, and billable-hour tracking now needs a paid plan. If you want billing baked into your project tool, an integrated tracker may fit better.
Guides
A complete operations and finance stack for independent consultants — scheduling, invoicing, bookkeeping, and time tracking with budget tiers, setup sprints, and weekly cadences.
The Consultant's Pricing Playbook: From Hourly to Value-BasedA framework to evaluate five pricing models, calculate what to charge, and build tiered packages — with formulas, scripts, and sourced benchmarks for solo consultants.
From Solo to Firm: Scaling Your Consulting PracticeYour tool needs change at every growth stage. A practical guide to the technology, processes, and decisions that take you from solo consultant to small firm — without losing what made you great.
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