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A simple Asana alternative for a freelancer and a client
Updated · by the Simpleban team
In short
Asana is a team work-management platform: projects, portfolios, goals, workflows, reporting, and pricing per seat. If the “team” is you and one other person, Simpleban is the simpler alternative — a single real-time kanban board where every card has an owner: you, your partner, or either of you, handing a card over shows up on the other person's board (and in their inbox), repeating tasks come back by themselves, and the whole thing is free with no seat to buy for the second person.
Where Asana is too much for two
- Projects, sections, portfolios, goals, rules, forms, dashboards — power you pay for and, as a pair, never open.
- Inviting a client means another seat and another onboarding.
- Notifications are designed for teams; the useful one for a pair — “this is now waiting on you” — is buried in the inbox with everything else.
What Simpleban keeps
- Columns and cards with drag and drop, real-time sync and presence.
- Assignment, simplified to the only three states two people need: me, my partner, or either of us.
- Due dates with a Today / This week filter and a private calendar feed.
- Repeating cards, including alternating between the two of you.
- A handoff that is visible on the board and emailed if the other person is away, plus a morning nudge and a Sunday summary.
- Comments, markdown notes and checklists on every card.
Side by side
| Asana | Simpleban | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Teams and organisations | Two people |
| Views | List, board, timeline, calendar, dashboards | Board (plus a calendar feed) |
| Workflows & rules | Yes | No — one built-in handoff |
| Recurring tasks | Yes | Yes, can alternate between two people |
| Client access | Guest or seat | Invite link: name + email, never pays |
| Integrations | Hundreds | None |
| Price for two | Free tier for small teams; paid per seat | Free, every feature, written promise |
Who should stay on Asana
Teams. Anyone who needs timelines, workload views, reporting, or integrations with the rest of a company's tools. Simpleban is built for two people, and for two it stays free forever. If you need more people or want to share boards with someone new, we'll soon introduce subscription tiers — a flat rate, never per seat.
Templates to start from
Questions, answered
- Is Simpleban a good Asana alternative for freelancers?
- For a freelancer working with one client at a time, yes: the client joins from a link, sees what's in progress and what's waiting on them, and never pays. For an agency with several people per project, Asana is the right tool.
- Does Simpleban have recurring tasks like Asana?
- Yes — daily, weekly, chosen weekdays, every N days or weeks, monthly — and a card can alternate between the two people.
- Is it free?
- Simpleban is free forever for two: you and the one person you invite get every feature, unlimited boards and cards, no trial and no credit card. The promise is written into the Terms: nothing that is free today will ever move behind a paywall, and your +1 never pays. If you need more people or want to share boards beyond your +1, we'll soon introduce subscription tiers — a flat rate, never per seat.
- Can I import my Asana projects?
- Not automatically. Two-person boards are small; most people recreate theirs from a template in a minute.
A board for the two of you
Start from the Client project template; your client joins from a link.
Your board starts as “Client project” — columns and example cards you can change or delete.
Try the live demo board first