NocoBase
NocoBase runs two release lines at once while the v3 client rewrite absorbs the AI work
Comparison · PM
Asana vs Kitsu
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Asana and Kitsu — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Asana vs Kitsu: at a glance
What is Asana?
Asana's agent left the app — it now answers work questions inside Slack threads.
Two arcs run in parallel. A text and editor surface has been built out steadily — Pages, rich text in custom fields, highlighting, threaded comments, and now syntax highlighting — and an agent layer has grown alongside it through AI Teammates, Teammate Skills, and AI Studio. Nearly every release cites a named Community forum request as its origin. The editor work carries a recurring caveat: features land on web first and mobile trails, sometimes losing formatting outright.
What is Kitsu?
Kitsu is turning its studio pipeline tool into a client-facing review platform.
Kitsu, the open-source animation and VFX production tracker, is investing heavily in the review loop: onion skinning and shape annotations, an annotation eraser, public playlist links that let external reviewers comment without accounts, and client-visible comment toggles. In parallel it added OpenID Connect for studio SSO and production-setup tooling (project templates, retake-count and cross-task-type filters).
Asana vs Kitsu: editorial side-by-side
Asana
7.5PMCOLLAB
Asana's agent left the app — it now answers work questions inside Slack threads.
◆ Current state
Two arcs run in parallel. A text and editor surface has been built out steadily — Pages, rich text in custom fields, highlighting, threaded comments, and now syntax highlighting — and an agent layer has grown alongside it through AI Teammates, Teammate Skills, and AI Studio. Nearly every release cites a named Community forum request as its origin. The editor work carries a recurring caveat: features land on web first and mobile trails, sometimes losing formatting outright.
◆ Where it's heading
The editor arc is now mostly closing out a backlog of formatting asks, and each release is narrower than the last. The agent arc is the one changing shape: it has moved from configuring automations inside Asana to answering questions about the work graph from inside another vendor's application, on every tier including Personal. Building it permission-inheriting and private-by-default suggests Asana is treating the agent as a distribution surface rather than a feature to upsell.
◆ Prediction
Expect the same agent to appear on more surfaces — Teams and email are the obvious next ones — and expect mobile parity work on the editor features that shipped web-only. The language-tier expansion Asana flagged for syntax highlighting is the low-risk near-term item.
Kitsu
2.5PM
Kitsu is turning its studio pipeline tool into a client-facing review platform.
◆ Current state
Kitsu, the open-source animation and VFX production tracker, is investing heavily in the review loop: onion skinning and shape annotations, an annotation eraser, public playlist links that let external reviewers comment without accounts, and client-visible comment toggles. In parallel it added OpenID Connect for studio SSO and production-setup tooling (project templates, retake-count and cross-task-type filters).
◆ Where it's heading
The clear direction is external collaboration — pulling clients, supervisors, and vendors into Kitsu's review player rather than exporting frames elsewhere. Enterprise auth (OIDC) and richer annotation tools reinforce a move from internal tracker toward a shared review-and-approval hub.
◆ Prediction
Expect the guest-review surface to deepen — more annotation fidelity and approval-workflow controls — and further identity/permissions work following OIDC. The cadence points to continued review-platform build-out.
Alternatives to Asana and Kitsu
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Asana or Kitsu.
Hive
Hive ships in batches, and this one is all planning accuracy and admin control.
Plane
Plane ships a fortnightly digest, and the AI layer is where the real work is going.
Ever Teams
Ever Teams shipped ten tags in twelve hours and one of them touched the product
Apploye
Apploye's feed is an SEO blog, and its running theme is defending monitoring on privacy grounds.
Notesnook
Notesnook ships steady 3.4.x patches across desktop and Android with the notes kept off-feed.
Recent activity from Asana and Kitsu
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoAsana⌨️ Syntax highlighting in text editors is now live!
- 1d agoAsana🎉 @mention Asana in Slack to create tasks and get answers ⚡
- 12d agoAsanaMake key details pop with text ✨ highlighting ✨
- 13d agoAsana📝 Rich text in custom fields is now live!
- 15d agoAsanaThreaded Comments are LIVE! 🧵
- 26d agoAsana✨📄 Introducing Pages! (formerly known as Notes) ⚡
- 2mo agoKitsuOpenID Connect Support
- 2mo agoKitsuAnnotation Onion Skinning Comes to Review Playlists
- 2mo agoKitsuErase mistakes, not your whole annotation!
- 3mo agoKitsuShape Annotations
- 3mo agoKitsuShare playlists with anyone using a public link
- 3mo agoKitsuFilter Tasks by Retake Count on the Task Type Page
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Asana and Kitsu?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Asana is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 2.5), with 2 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Asana better than Kitsu?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Asana is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 2.5), with 2 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other PM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Asana?
Top Asana alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Asana alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/asana for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Kitsu?
Top Kitsu alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Kitsu alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/kitsu for the full list with editorial commentary on each.