Asana vs Focalboard
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $11-$25/user/mo on Asana.
Side-by-side
| Asana | Focalboard (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 (NOASSERTION) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (manual) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 74 / 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
Focalboard 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 | Focalboard on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $90 | $4.13 | $85.87 |
| Yearly | $1080 | $49.56 | $1030.44 |
| 3 years | $3,240 | $149 | $3,091 |
Deploy Focalboard now
One-click deploys at the cheapest provider for this workload:
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Common questions
Is Focalboard a good alternative to Asana?
Focalboard is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Asana with an ossreplace health score of 74/100 — 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 NOASSERTION license, versus Asana's $11–25/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is Focalboard than Asana?
A 5-person team pays about $90/mo on Asana. Self-hosting Focalboard on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $3,091 less over three years (95% lower).
Is Focalboard hard to self-host?
Focalboard 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 Focalboard vs Asana?
Yes. Because Focalboard runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With Asana, Asana controls the hosting, storage, and access.