ALTERNATIVE TO ASANA

Asana alternative — Operations department for $199/mo

Asana manages tasks. Merkava's Operations department runs the whole function — project cadence, hiring, HR, onboarding, and support — on a shared data layer your entire org sees. For $199/mo you get an AI COO, not a task board.

WHAT YOU ACTUALLY NEED

Asana vs. Merkava Operations: honest comparison

Asana is excellent at what it does. The question is whether "what it does" covers what you need.

WHAT YOU NEED ASANA (+ your stack) MERKAVA OPERATIONS
Project & task management Best-in-class. Timelines, boards, portfolios, custom rules. Purpose-built for complex project hierarchies. Operating cadence driven by AI COO. Weekly reviews, blocked work surfaced automatically, priority decisions made by Forge AI.
Hiring & ATS Not covered. Requires separate ATS (Lever, Greenhouse, etc.) at $200+/mo. Onramp Drive manages sourcing, screening, and pipeline — AI recruiter included in the Operations department.
HR & people ops Not covered. Requires BambooHR ($250/mo), Gusto ($67/mo), or similar. Crew Drive handles people ops — headcount, comp tracking, reporting. Integrates with Gusto and BambooHR if you keep them.
Operating cadence (KPI reviews) Asana dashboards can track metrics, but weekly business reviews require manual setup and human facilitation. Centerline Drive runs the weekly operating cadence — AI COO facilitates, flags variances, surfaces what needs a decision.
Customer support Not covered. Requires Intercom, Zendesk, or similar at $87–$165/mo. Relay Drive handles customer support routing and escalation — included in the Operations department.
Employee onboarding Task templates can be repurposed. Not purpose-built for onboarding flows. Ignition Drive manages onboarding sequences — internal hires and customer onboarding both covered.

Honest take: Asana's UI for project management is more mature and purpose-built for complex project hierarchies with large teams. Merkava wins on scope: it's a full operations function, not a task board. If project hierarchy depth is your primary need, Asana is still the right tool — and Merkava integrates with it.

THE MATH

Asana vs. the whole operations stack vs. Merkava.

ASANA ALONE
Task board
Project and task management. Does not include hiring, HR, people ops, support, or operating cadence.
$33/mo (3 seats)
Then add: Notion ($60), Gusto ($67), BambooHR ($250), Typeform ($39). Full ops stack: $485/mo — and you still run all of it yourself.
OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT · COO
Operations
Project cadence, hiring, HR, onboarding, support — all run by your AI COO on a shared data layer. Every system talking to every other.
$485/mo tools → $199/mo
$199 — the tools, the operator who runs them, and the integration. For less than the tools alone. The tools are the cheapest part of what you're getting.
Hire your COO →
QUESTIONS

Asana vs. Merkava FAQ

Is Merkava's Operations department a replacement for Asana?

For task management depth with complex project hierarchies and large teams, Asana still wins. Merkava replaces the entire operations function — Asana, HR tools, recruiting, onboarding, and the COO-level judgment that ties them together — for early-stage operators who need the whole function, not just the task board.

What does the Operations department do that Asana doesn't?

Hiring pipeline management (Onramp Drive), HR and people ops (Crew Drive), weekly operating cadence and KPI reviews (Centerline Drive), customer support routing (Relay Drive), and Forge AI that runs the whole function autonomously. Asana is a task board. Merkava is an operations department.

Does Merkava integrate with Asana?

Yes. If you want to keep Asana as your task layer, your Operations department can read and write Asana tasks. The integration is listed in the Garage. Many operators keep Asana for project visibility and use Merkava for the broader ops function that Asana doesn't cover.