Automation - any downsides to using external system like Make/Zapier etc?

English Forum App Integrations
1

I have been contemplating upgrading to Asana Business to use more automations. Unfortunately there are still what I consider some basic automations missing. For example, I want to automate a “Sales Pipeline” a bit more and so when a due date arrives for a task in the “Quoted” section, it would send an email to the Email field asking if they received the proposal etc. so automate the chasing up. And if after a couple of attempts there is no reply it closes them.

But the built in Asana “Gmail” does not connect the To field to a field, but you have to enter a specific email address. I then read I could then pay extra again for Flowsana, but I dont get why I should subscribe to the top Business plan, and then have to pay more again for Flowsana to add a few automations which you’d expect in the main system.

So if Asana cannot do it, and I do have to use a 3rd party system, I would rather use Make.com (or Zapier etc) than Flowsana.

I have already created the above scenario in Make and it seems to work well. It took some time to setup.

I wondered what peoples thoughts are in not using Asana’s automations but using 3rd party systems like Make which seem to have far more triggers and actions. I am worried at some time Asana could stop such integrations and all the hard work and business automation stops. I do not want a mix of Asana automations and 3rd party, because its disjointed, I prefer all my automations in one place.

Thanks

2

@Laurence_Cope,

I think it would be unlikely that Asana would disable make.com or other automations, but that’s just speculation.

But other downsides are that those can take time to set up and are often subject to various limitations in their free versions, and nicer to limit third-party use as much as possible, which is something I advocate to clients. It’s fine to use third parties, but not the first choice.

Only you can decide what’s best in your case but, FWIW, I used to recommend Premium as a base plan for clients, and now I recommend Business due to all the extra, powerful functionality–not just with Rules but for the other benefits as well. By not choosing it in your case, you’re not only doing worse with your “I do not want a mix of Asana automations and 3rd party” but also missing out on other functionality.

The first third-party automation solution I recommend to clients is Flowsana.net. It’s not free, but it’s quite reasonable, incredibly powerful, and easy to use. Then I recommend make.com or other similar automation tools.

Thanks,

Larry

3

Hi @Laurence_Cope,

Also I just wanted to point out that using Flowsana, you may well be able to implement the rules/automations you need with Premium and thus incur a lower cost than you would for Asana Business.