Mainline vs Asana
Asana is generic project management for every department. Mainline is shaped only for engineering teams that practice trunk-based development and continuous delivery - and it is unsuitable for anyone else.
| Mainline | Asana | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary unit of work | User story on a story map | Task in a project |
| Estimation model | Lead-time distributions from your team's actual history | None native; manual fields if you want them |
| Backlog | None. A backlog is a landfill. | First-class concept (sections, sub-tasks, dependencies) |
| People per story | As many as are working on it. Solo, pair, or ensemble. | One assignee. You cannot put a second person on a task. |
| What "done" means | Released to users | Marked complete |
| Deploy / release lifecycle | Deploy and release are separate events. A story cannot be released until it has been deployed. | No distinction - tasks are marked complete |
| Who can see what | Every view is the same view, including the manager's | Configurable views, manager-specific reports |
| Per-developer metrics | None. Surveillance is not a feature. | Available via the reporting surface |
| WIP limits | Enforced | None |
| Pricing model | Flat. $99 per team per month, or self-host free. | Per seat. $11-$25 / user / month. |
| Data export | Full JSON export including complete event history | CSV export (task-list-shaped) |
| Worldview encoded in the data model | Continuous flow with paired delivery | Generic task management for any team |
When to choose Mainline
Your engineering team owns its process and tool budget, and wants a tool shaped for shipping software, not one shared with marketing and ops.
When to choose Asana
Your company standardised on one tool for every department, and engineering wasn't asked. Then Asana is the right answer.
We also have comparisons against Jira, Linear, and Miro. If you'd like to see Mainline compared to a tool we haven't covered, email us.
14-day trial, no card. Or self-host free.
Try hosted