An Asana alternative for remote teams
In an office, capacity is something you sense. Remote, it is something you either write down or hold a meeting about.
Why remote teams use Asana
It gives a distributed company one shared record and a report for whoever needs the overview.
Where it stops
It shows status, not hours, so it can look green while two people are quietly underwater in different countries.
The week remote teams actually have
Four time zones, an overlap window of about three hours, and a status meeting that exists because there is no other way to find out what anybody is doing. Somebody is always blocked on somebody who is asleep, and the discovery happens the next morning.
You hold meetings to find out things a screen could tell you
The standup is not for coordination, it is for visibility, and it costs the whole team the same half hour every day.
In UnaTask: A calendar with everybody’s blocks on it answers the question the meeting was asked to answer.
Blocked on somebody asleep, discovered tomorrow
A dependency across time zones costs a full day every time it is found late, and it is always found late.
In UnaTask: Dependencies on a timeline, so the handover is visible the day before rather than the morning after.
The overlap window gets spent on the wrong things
The three hours everybody shares are the most valuable hours the team has, and they get filled by whoever books first.
In UnaTask: Team availability shows the overlap, so it gets planned rather than consumed.
Decisions from calls exist only for the people on them
Half the team was asleep. The recording is an hour long and nobody watches it.
In UnaTask: A notetaker turns the call into assigned tasks, which is the part the sleeping half actually needed.
On the things remote teams asked about
| What it does | Asana | UnaTask |
|---|---|---|
| Time blocking on a calendar | No | Core |
| Dependencies and a timeline | Yes | Yes. Dependencies with a timeline that shows what is waiting on what. |
| See who has room | Yes | Core |
| Meetings become tasks | Partly | Yes |
| A free plan | Yes | Yes |
What it costs
For a team of 5, billed yearly, Asana is about $659.40 a year and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT. The two are quoted in different currencies, so we have not subtracted one from the other.
Asana: Free up to 2 users. $10.99 Starter and $24.99 Advanced per user per month billed annually.
Common questions
Why do remote teams use Asana?
It gives a distributed company one shared record and a report for whoever needs the overview.
Where does Asana stop working for remote teams?
It shows status, not hours, so it can look green while two people are quietly underwater in different countries.
Should we leave Asana?
Not necessarily, and we would rather say so. Keep Asana if your company runs many teams and somebody above them needs the view from above. Move if the missing piece is the week itself: hours on a calendar, for everyone, before the work is promised.
Does it handle time zones?
Yes. Everybody sees the calendar in their own zone, and a meeting invitation states the time in the reader’s zone rather than the sender’s.
Can I see when a colleague is free?
Yes, team availability shows the hours already committed. Whether you see what those hours contain depends on the permissions you have.
Asana details checked 2 August 2026.