Asana vs ClickUp vs Notion: Which One Should You Actually Choose?
I swear this conversation never dies. I see it at least monthly on Threads.
Asana vs ClickUp, ClickUp vs Notion, Notion vs Airtable, Monday vs ClickUp.
Trello vs…. literally everything.
And every time someone asks, the comments immediately fill up with people passionately defending their favorite app like they’re arguing over sports teams.
But to me… it’s like a bunch of people arguing over their favorite color. It’s SO subjective.
There Is No “Best”
Now if you’re actually asking me which one you should go for, I know this answer isn’t the one you want to hear. But if all of these apps sat in a Venn diagram, none of them would fully overlap.
They’re solving different problems. They’re designed differently. They’re built for different types of businesses, different workflows, different levels of complexity, different personal preferences and working styles, and different brains.
So whenever someone says:
“Notion is better.”
“ClickUp is better.”
“Asana is better.”
What they’re really saying is:
“It’s better for me.”
Let’s Start With Asana
Asana is where I started!
It’s straightforward and easy to learn. You can get in, organize your projects, manage your tasks, and get out without needing a certification course first to know what you’re doing. The UI is lovely, too. Light, clean, and organized.
If your workflows are relatively simple and you’re mostly looking for project and task management, Asana is a really solid choice. And you can play with automations, too — so it’s not a basic option.
If you’re someone who gets overwhelmed by complexity but still wants functionality, Asana is usually where I’d point you first.
The tradeoff? (or, to some, the benefit):
You’re largely working within Asana’s structure.
You can customize some things, sure, but you’re not building a completely unique system. And for some people that’s perfect. You can pop in, play with some settings, maybe set up a few automations, create your projects and tasks, and you’re full steam ahead.
But for others, that’s exactly what starts feeling restrictive.
Then There’s ClickUp
ClickUp sits somewhere in the middle.
You’re getting significantly more functionality than Asana. More customization, more flexibility, more ways to create dashboards, organize information, and build out a central hub… plus tons of other neat features now like team chat, AI agents, and more.
For some people, that’s amazing.
For others, it’s immediately overwhelming.
But the truth is, between structured and easy to jump into (Asana) and fully customizable (Notion), ClickUp is the perfect middleground.
My opinion? I eventually left ClickUp. A lot of my clients have too. Not because it’s BAD — it’s a great app (although the glitches, mobile experience, and overall feel of the platform eventually became frustrating enough that I had to leave for something different… hopefully these issues have since been fixed!)
For me, the problem was, just like Asana, it forced me into it’s own structure too much, when my brain wanted something DIFFERENT. Something more ME.
And it didn’t dawn on me until I realized I was using ClickUp’s dashboards to try to make systems that looked…. just like Notion. 😂 (Imagine my horror when I figured this out as die-hard ClickUp fan and an avid Notion hater — yep, ME, a previous Notion hater!)
That said, there are plenty of people who absolutely LOVE ClickUp and would never leave it, rightfully so — it works for them!
Then There’s Notion
Of course, this is where I landed.
Not because it’s objectively better, but because it’s the closest thing I’ve found to being able to build systems around how someone’s brain actually works without building your own app — and that’s exactly the work I’m in: building highly custom systems that fit YOUR unique brain.
Now, Notion isn’t a project management tool, so its a bit weird to compare it to Asana and ClickUp. It’s a database tool that people commonly use for project management (and life/business management, CRMs, and more).
Notion is quite literally a big, blank page when you first begin (unless you grab a template). To some (like me!), this is EXCITING — but to many people, this is completely overwhelming. (So if that’s how you feel, know you’re in good company!)
But because of that, when you use Notion, instead of asking:
“How do I fit into this system?”
You get to ask:
“How do I want this system to work? How do I want it to fit ME?”
You can build a task manager. A CRM. A client portal. A content hub. A business hub. A knowledge base.
Or all of the above…. exactly how you want it. The possibilities are honestly kind of ridiculous.
A lot of people will be loud about how Notion is “too complex”, “way more time than it’s worth”, “not a good app for [insert any type of system build you can think of here]”.
But that’s most often because:
They’re someone who wants to jump into an app right away and use it (which is fine!), not someone who wants to build something from scratch that fits their brain like a glove. Two completely different users — one finds endless possibility, one finds frustration.
They started with a template that was so over-bloated with stuff — and I can say this from experience. Starting with templates made me initially swear off ever using Notion because of how JAMMED they can be with 1000 flashy things you’ll never use… but a template is just one person’s creation, and yours can be entirely different.
They don’t actually fully know how to use Notion. Many users who fell off of Notion will claim things like, “Notion is terrible for project management”, but then a power-user Notion creator who builds PM tools in Notion for large teams will say the complete opposite. It’s about what you know. Notions relations, formulas, automations, and now Notion AI are all incredibly capable — and if you really know how to use them, you can build some really insane systems that make PM tools feel basic.
(I also hear a lot of “Airtable does everything better than Notion” — but there are multiple builds I came to a halt on with Airtable and moved over to Notion because Airtable just ….couldn’t, especially when it comes to formula functionality.)
But none of these reasons mean Notion itself is objectively a bad choice.
The Real Questions Worth Asking
Most of the time when someone asks me which app they should use, I don’t start with the app.
I start with the person.
What have they tried before?
What did they love?
What drove them absolutely insane?
What keeps falling apart?
Because the answer is usually sitting right there.
The truth is that the best system isn’t the one with the most features or the one someone on Threads said is the BEST for project management.
It’s the one that’s set up to mesh with your brain and the way you work… and the one you’ll actually consistently use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Notion better than ClickUp?
Short answer: neither is better. They serve different users and different use cases.
Is Asana easier to use than ClickUp?
Generally, yes. Most people find Asana easier to learn, while ClickUp offers more functionality.
Is Notion a project management tool?
Not technically. It’s a database and workspace platform that many people use to build project management systems.
