Chassis vs Asana: the cockpit-native PM vs the broad-spectrum PM platform.
Asana is the broad-spectrum project management platform — every department, every workflow, deep customization, hundreds of integrations. Chassis is the project layer inside an operating cockpit — fewer knobs, more built-in workflows, AI in the box. Below: where each one is the right call, and a feature-by-feature table.
Where Asana is better.
Asana has been doing this for over a decade and it shows.
- Massive integration ecosystem. 270+ apps in the Asana app gallery — every adjacent SaaS product has a polished Asana integration. Chassis integrates through the Merkava platform layer (~17 apps today).
- Custom-field depth. Asana's custom-field system models arbitrary structured data on tasks: dropdowns, numbers, dates, formulas, dependencies. Chassis ships built-in fields and tags but does not match this.
- Free-tier reach. Asana's free tier supports up to 10 users with unlimited projects and tasks. Real teams build real workflows on it without paying. Chassis has a 7-day trial; the cockpit is free but Drives are paid after.
- Portfolios + Goals + workload views. Asana's portfolio rollup, goal tracking, and workload-balancing views are mature and polished. Chassis has project-level health rollup but not the full portfolio product.
- Forms + intake workflows. Asana Forms turn external requests into tasks with custom fields. Chassis does not have a native form builder yet (use Webster + a webhook for now).
- Enterprise admin + SSO + audit logs. Asana Enterprise has more mature admin tooling — SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, granular audit logs, data residency. Chassis ships with SSO and per-action audit logs in every tenant, but the enterprise admin surface is less developed.
Where Chassis is better.
Where the cockpit-native posture matters.
- Forge AI workflows in the box. Subtask suggestions, auto-written end-of-sprint retros, weekly digests, project scaffolding from your venture profile. Asana's AI features are newer and require their higher tiers; Chassis ships them at every tier.
- GitHub bidirectional sync without an add-on. Set github_repo on a project and engineering work syncs both ways — import, reconcile, export, close. Asana has a GitHub integration but it is more limited and one-directional in practice.
- Native to Centerline cadence. Quarterly bearings (what EOS calls rocks) promote into Chassis projects without re-keying. Asana doesn't model an operating cadence.
- Owners are real Crew records. Task owners are the same person record HR, payroll, performance reviews, and onboarding all reference. One canonical employee across the cockpit.
- Free cockpit + per-Drive pricing. $49/mo flat for Chassis standalone, or bundled into the OPS exec ($299/mo) which includes Centerline + Crew + Gauge + 5 more Drives. Asana's per-seat pricing scales linearly with team size.
- Lower cognitive overhead. Asana's customization is a feature — and a tax. New team members spend a week learning your custom workflows. Chassis is opinionated; the surface is smaller; setup is faster.
Feature-by-feature.
Snapshot as of May 2026. If a row reads wrong, email [email protected] and we'll fix.
| Feature | Chassis | Asana |
|---|---|---|
| Kanban + list view | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cycles / sprints + burndown | ✓ | partial |
| Custom fields | partial | ✓ deep |
| Integrations count | ~17 cockpit integrations | ✓ 270+ |
| AI assist | ✓ in the box, every tier | partial — paid tiers only |
| GitHub bidirectional sync | ✓ | partial |
| Public roadmap | via Webster (manual) | partial |
| Forms / intake | ✗ (use Webster + webhook) | ✓ Asana Forms |
| Portfolios + Goals | partial | ✓ first-class |
| Free tier | 7-day trial; cockpit free | ✓ free up to 10 users |
| Pricing model | $49/mo flat (per tenant) | $10.99–$24.99/seat/mo |
| Centerline bearing integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| People records (HR + payroll) | ✓ Crew | ✗ |
| Enterprise admin (SSO/SCIM/audit) | partial | ✓ deep |
| Learning curve | low | medium — customization tax |
Who should use Chassis instead.
Solo operators and small teams who want an opinionated PM tool with AI workflows already wired in. You don't want to spend a week building a custom Asana template — you want a kanban that already understands what a quarterly bearing is (what EOS calls a rock), who owns it (a Crew employee), where the docs are (Atlas), and what the github_repo is. Chassis fits that shape.
If you're already paying for Centerline, Crew, or Gauge separately as standalone services, the OPS exec bundle ($299/mo) replaces all of them and includes Chassis.
Who should stay on Asana.
Don't migrate if your team's value is in the customization. If you've built a marketing-ops workflow with twelve custom fields, three forms, and a portfolio rollup that drives weekly leadership reviews — that doesn't port. Asana's depth is a real moat.
Also stay if you need 50–500 user free-tier reach for casual collaborators (clients, contractors, cross-functional reviewers). Chassis bills per tenant, not per seat, but the free tier doesn't go that far.
Try the cockpit-native PM Drive.
7-day free trial. The cockpit itself is free.