Asana vs Makeplane
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $11-$25/user/mo on Asana.
Side-by-side
| Asana | Makeplane (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $11-$25/user/mo | $4.13/mo flat (any team size) |
| Hosting | Asana's servers | Your VPS (hetzner CAX11) |
| Data ownership | Asana controls the data | Your disk, your encryption |
| Source code | Closed | Open (AGPL-3.0) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (manual) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 71 / 100 |
Why teams leave Asana
- Per-user pricing punishes teams that scale
- Cloud-only, no self-hosting option
- Goal/portfolio features paywalled to Advanced tier
- API rate limits on free tier
Makeplane answers this by: Plane, Leantime, and Focalboard give the same task/board/timeline experience without per-seat fees.
The cost math
Assumes 5-person team using Asana at the midpoint price ($18/user/mo).
| Period | Asana | Makeplane on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $90 | $4.13 | $85.87 |
| Yearly | $1080 | $49.56 | $1030.44 |
| 3 years | $3,240 | $149 | $3,091 |
Deploy Makeplane now
One-click deploys at the cheapest provider for this workload:
Affiliate disclosure — these links may earn ossreplace a commission at no cost to you.
Common questions
Is Makeplane a good alternative to Asana?
Makeplane is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Asana with an ossreplace health score of 71/100 — a composite of project activity, maturity, community, security, and adoption. It runs on your own hetzner VPS from $4.13/mo with full source access under the AGPL-3.0 license, versus Asana's $11–25/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is Makeplane than Asana?
A 5-person team pays about $90/mo on Asana. Self-hosting Makeplane on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $3,091 less over three years (95% lower).
Is Makeplane hard to self-host?
Makeplane self-hosts on your own VPS. You handle the install, backups, and updates yourself in exchange for full data ownership and no per-seat fees.
Do you keep control of your data with Makeplane vs Asana?
Yes. Because Makeplane runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With Asana, Asana controls the hosting, storage, and access.