A polished, well-designed project management platform popular with cross-functional teams. Per-seat pricing, generic across industries.
Asana is a focused project and task management tool with excellent UX for generic teams. Helm is an AI work platform built specifically for service businesses: CRM, projects, time, billing, and AI agents on the same records. Pick Asana if you're running generic cross-functional work. Pick Helm if you're billing clients for services.
Last reviewed: April 18, 2026
Pricing, scope, and what you actually get on day one.
| Helm | Asana | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per-workspace | Per-user/month |
| Starting paid price | $49/mo per workspace | $10.99/user/mo (Starter) |
| Free tier | No | Yes (Personal) |
| Built for | Professional services | Cross-functional teams, generic |
| AI approach | Autonomous agents that execute | Asana Intelligence (assistive summaries and drafts) |
| Native billing / CRM | Both built in | No (integrations) |
Capability-by-capability breakdown. We describe what's in the product, not what's on a roadmap slide.
| Feature | Helm | Asana |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per workspace | Per user/month |
| Free tier | No | Yes (up to 10 seats) |
| CRM / accounts | Native | No (integrations like Salesforce, HubSpot) |
| Project management | Kanban, list, calendar | Polished PM with timeline + portfolios |
| Time tracking | Native, rolls into invoices | Advanced tier only, limited |
| Invoicing / Stripe payments | Native | No |
| Estimates / proposals | Native | No |
| Rich documents | Native (TipTap) | No (integrations) |
| Workflow automation | Native + agents as workflow steps | Rules (trigger-based) |
| Autonomous AI agents | Pre-built roles that execute | Asana Intelligence (assistive) |
| MCP / Claude Code native | Yes | No |
| External integrations | 300+ via Composio | 270+ native |
| White-label / client portal | Business tier | No |
Both tools have real use cases. Here's when each one wins.
What moves cleanly, how to do it, and the places you'll want to plan ahead.
Projects, tasks, subtasks, and custom field values import via CSV. Team members map to Helm users.
Export each project as CSV from Asana. Import into Helm. Rebuild Rules as Helm Workflows; move portfolio-level views into Analytics or Operations Manager agent summaries.
Asana's portfolios and workload views don't have a direct 1:1 in Helm. Plan to replace those with Analytics views and scheduled agent reports. Dependencies and timeline view import in simplified form.
The questions we hear most from teams evaluating both platforms.
Asana is more polished on pure PM UX: timelines, portfolios, workload views. Helm trades some of that polish for integration breadth (CRM, invoicing, AI agents on the same records). If PM polish is your #1 criterion, Asana wins that narrow test.
Yes. Every app is optional. Many teams start with just Projects and add CRM, Time Tracking, and Invoicing over time. The per-workspace price stays the same either way.
Helm Analytics covers per-project profitability, utilization across projects, and workspace-wide trends. The literal "portfolio of projects" view pattern is less common because project data is already cross-linked with accounts, invoices, and time.
No. Different products. Asana Intelligence generates summaries and suggestions on top of Asana data. Helm agents execute: they send emails, chase invoices, post standups, manage projects. Autonomous staff vs assistive copilot.
Per-workspace pricing. All 12 apps. AI agents that execute the work.