Relay vs Asana
Asana is one of the most mature work management platforms on the market, and for a lot of teams it is the safe, correct answer. Relay is a newer, narrower product built around an AI agent layer that plans projects, watches for risk and acts inside the product. This page lays out where each one actually wins — including the places Asana beats Relay outright.
Asana pricing verified as of 1 September 2026
At a glance
Relay Orchestrator
AI agents run the delivery side of your projects: they draft the plan, flag work that is about to slip, and propose the fix for a person to approve.
Asana
A decade-refined work management platform with portfolios, goals, forms and hundreds of native integrations, proven at very large scale.
Pricing
Both products in full, with the fine print that changes the real number.
Relay Orchestrator
- Starter$120 one-time
Three users, three months, the entire product including the AI agent layer. One payment, no renewal.
- Teams$45 / user / month
Or $40 / user / month billed annually. Unlimited projects, AI agents on every one of them.
- EnterpriseContact sales
SAML/SSO, custom model selection, SLAs and dedicated support. In progress, not yet generally available.
Relay is $45 per user per month, or $40 billed annually — more per seat than Asana Advanced. A one-time $120 Starter pack gives three people three months of the complete product to try it properly. There is no cheaper Relay tier that holds features back: the agent layer, risk detection, digests and time tracking are in the price on every plan.
Asana
- PersonalFree
Seat-limited free tier for very small teams.
- Starter$10.99 / user / month
Billed annually; $13.49 billed monthly. Includes AI Studio Basic with 50,000 credits per billing account per month.
- Advanced$24.99 / user / month
Billed annually; $30.49 billed monthly. AI Studio Basic with 75,000 credits per billing account per month. Native time tracking starts here.
- Enterprise / Enterprise+Contact sales
AI Studio Basic with 200,000 credits per billing account per month, plus enterprise security and admin controls.
Asana is materially cheaper per seat than Relay at every published tier, and its free Personal plan costs nothing at all. The cost that catches teams out is tiering: several of the capabilities people move to Asana for — native time tracking among them — sit on Advanced at $24.99 per user per month, and AI Studio is metered in credits per billing account rather than being uncapped.
Competitor pricing verified as of 1 September 2026. Vendors change plans, tiers and per-seat rates without notice — check their pricing page for current rates before you buy.
Feature comparison
Rows where Asana is the stronger product are left standing as they are.
| Capability | Relay | Asana |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $120 one-time for 3 users / 3 months, then $45 per user per month | Free Personal tier; paid from $10.99 per user per month annually |
| AI included in the base price | Yes — every plan includes the agent layer | AI Studio credits are allocated per tier; AI Teammates is a separate add-on |
| Agent that drafts a full project plan from a goal | Yes — generates the plan from a title, goal and description | AI Studio builds workflows; project generation is not the core model |
| Continuous risk detection with a proposed fix | Yes — overdue work, overloaded people and conflicting dates, severity-ranked | Reporting, workload and goal tracking surface status; no risk agent |
| Approval gate and audit log on AI actions | Yes — role-gated approval, every agent action logged | Standard permissions and admin audit logs on higher tiers |
| Views | Board, table, timeline, calendar, sprints and a personal My Work list | List, board, timeline, Gantt, calendar, portfolios and workload |
| Native time tracking | Included on every plan | On Advanced and above |
| Native integrations | Slack, Notion, email, webhooks and a calendar subscription feed | Hundreds of native App Directory integrations plus a documented public API |
| Native mobile apps | No — responsive web only | Yes, iOS and Android |
| SAML / SSO | Enterprise conversation; not generally available | Yes, on Enterprise tiers |
| Migration path | Direct Asana, Jira, Trello and CSV importers with a dry-run preview | CSV importer plus a large partner and API ecosystem |
Where each one actually wins
A comparison that only flatters the product selling it is worthless. Here is the honest split.
Where Asana beats Relay
- Cost per seat. Asana is cheaper than Relay at every published tier, and its free Personal plan means a small team can start at zero.
- Integrations. Asana's App Directory carries hundreds of native integrations. Relay ships Slack, Notion, email, webhooks and a calendar feed — that is a real gap, not a rounding error.
- Maturity and scale. Asana has been refined for over a decade and is run inside some of the largest companies in the world. Relay has not been proven at that size.
- Enterprise controls. SAML/SSO, granular admin tooling and the compliance paperwork large buyers ask for are shipping features at Asana. At Relay they are still a sales conversation.
- Native mobile apps. Asana has real iOS and Android clients. Relay is responsive web only.
- Breadth of the work-management surface: forms, proofing, goals and portfolios, and a template library built up over years.
Where Relay beats Asana
- AI agents are included in every Relay plan rather than sold as a separate AI seat or credit pack. You are not budgeting AI Studio credits per billing account or buying an AI Teammates add-on on top of the seat.
- Risk detection runs continuously across every project and proposes a fix — overdue work, overloaded people, conflicting dates — rather than waiting for someone to read a dashboard.
- Agents draft the project plan itself from a title and a goal, instead of handing you an empty board to fill in.
- Native time tracking is on every plan, not gated behind the $24.99 Advanced tier.
- Nothing an agent proposes is applied without the right role approving it, and every action lands in an audit log you can read.
- A direct Asana importer with a dry-run preview: you see exactly what will be created before anything lands.
Which should you pick?
Pick Asana if
Choose Asana if per-seat cost is the deciding factor, if you need a long tail of native integrations, or if you are buying for a large organisation that needs SSO, mobile apps and a vendor with a decade of enterprise track record.
Pick Relay if
Choose Relay if you want the AI layer to be the product rather than an add-on — agents that plan the work, catch slippage early and act inside the tool under a real approval gate — and your team is small enough that per-seat price is not the binding constraint.
Relay vs Asana: common questions
Is Relay cheaper than Asana?
No. Relay is $45 per user per month, or $40 billed annually. Asana's Starter plan is $10.99 per user per month billed annually and Advanced is $24.99, so Asana is cheaper per seat at every published tier. Relay's argument is not price — it is that the AI agent layer is included in that price rather than metered as credits or sold as an add-on.
Can I import my Asana projects into Relay?
Yes. Relay has a direct Asana importer alongside Jira, Trello and CSV importers. Every import runs a dry-run preview first, so you see exactly which projects, tasks, assignees and dates will be created before anything is written.
How is Relay's AI different from Asana AI Studio?
Asana AI Studio lets you build AI-powered workflows, and it is metered in credits allocated per billing account per tier. Relay's agents are the product: one plans a project from a goal, one continuously scans for risk and proposes fixes, one writes role-aware digests, and an assistant takes real actions in the product behind a role-gated approval step. They are included on every Relay plan.
What does Asana do that Relay does not?
Several things. Asana has hundreds of native integrations to Relay's handful, native iOS and Android apps where Relay is responsive web only, shipping SAML/SSO and enterprise admin controls, forms and proofing, and a free tier. It is also a far more proven product at large-company scale.
Does Relay include time tracking like Asana Advanced?
Yes, and on every plan. Asana's native time tracking starts on the Advanced tier at $24.99 per user per month billed annually.
Is this pricing current?
Competitor pricing on this page was verified on 1 September 2026 against asana.com/pricing. Vendors change plans without notice, so check their pricing page before you buy.
Other comparisons
See it on your own projects
Import from Asana or a CSV, preview exactly what will be created, and let the agents draft the first plan. Nothing changes without your approval.