Trello Review

Trello is a simple and user-friendly project management solution. Everyone on your team can easily use the drag-and-drop Kanban board to manage tasks and visualize progress throughout the workflow. While the software is dead simple to use and has an excellent free plan, it lacks some advanced functionality required for complex projects.

Trello Compared to the Best Project Management Software

Because of its simplicity and focus on ease-of-use, Trello slid made our list of the best project management software. We really like the no-frills boards that are easy for your team to master. It made our list of best PM software:

Monday.com – Best for project management software for most
ClickUp – Best remote work platform
Smartsheet – Best for flexibility
Teamwork – Best for client and service-based businesses
Asana – Best balance of power and simplicity
Trello – Best Kanban project management

Trello reigns supreme for simple projects, but if you need something more detailed, it may not be the ideal solution for you and your team. Looking for something a bit more comprehensive with advanced functionality or want to explore all of your options? Read our full breakdown of the top project management software.

Trello: The Good and The Bad

As much as we love Trello, it doesn’t come without its drawbacks. In this section, we explore our favorite—and least favorite—qualities that Trello has to offer. (Our direct comparison of Trello vs. Monday, which is our top pick for project management software, can help you understand how Trello stacks up against the best.)

What Trello Is Good At

Easy to Use: Trello’s usability is one of the biggest reasons it’s on our list of the best project management tools. It’s as intuitive as it gets, making a great solution for smaller teams looking for a no-brainer solution. Even non-technical users can navigate the platform without any hassle or headaches—it’s familiar and simple yet powerful enough to streamline your project management processes.

From starting a new project to onboarding new team members, everything is straightforward and takes just a few clicks. Since simplicity is at Trello’s core, there’s virtually no learning curve. You can sign up now and be managing your next project in less than five minutes. It’s that easy.

Workflow Automation: Despite its simplicity, Trello’s automation tools are generous and just as easy to set up. Butler, Trello’s automation bot, makes setting up rule-based triggers and desired actions easier than ever. All you have to do is answer a few questions and Butler configures everything for you. From due-date commands, moving cards from one column to the next, and notifying team members, it offers just enough to help you save time and get more done without worrying about admin tasks.

We use custom buttons a lot. The one we use the most automatically moves a card from one list to the next and then assigns it to a new team member after an action is marked complete. We never have to worry about remembering to tag the next person, making it a worry-free solution for our business.

Extended Functionality Options: One of the most significant reasons teams—ourselves included— love Trello is because of its simplicity. Out of the box, it’s easy to use with virtually no learning curve. But there are numerous features you can use to extend the platform’s functionality. From Butler automations to Power-Ups and integrations, it offers just the right amount of power without sacrificing its claim to fame.

With Power-Ups, you can integrate tools you’re already using, like Slack, Google Drive, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, into your Trello workflows to create automations that span all of your tools. Inside Trello, you’ll find Power-Ups for file management, communication, analytics and reporting, and more. These extended capabilities help take a basic Trello board to the next level.

Powerful Mobile App: Most of the best project management solutions come with some version of a mobile app, but Trello’s is a highly-rated fan favorite. With it, you can do just about everything you can do on the desktop version, distilling project management down into just a few taps. It’s easily accessible for you and your entire team at no extra cost, so everyone can stay in the loop even if they don’t have access to their computers.

One of the standouts of Trello’s mobile app is its usability and responsiveness. It’s super easy to drag cards from one status column to another without messing up the workflow or moving something by mistake. These are common pain points for other Kanban-style project management apps on the market, but it’s not a problem for Trello.

Team Collaboration Features: Team collaboration is at the heart of the project management process and Trello doesn’t fail to deliver. It comes with a wide range of collaboration tools, including comments, document sharing, @mentions of teammates, and notifications as well. Managers can assign team members to the appropriate cards so users always know what’s on their agenda.

Plus, users can comment on cards, tag each other, and keep conversations centralized to each task so it all stays in one place. Each user can configure notifications via email, desktop, and push notifications as well to customize the experience based on their preferences.

Slack Integration: Trello also integrates with Slack, making team communication and collaboration easier than ever. With the integration, you can paste Trello links into Slack and see important stats, like assignees, task descriptions, and recent comments without ever leaving the app. You can even attach Slack conversations directly to Trello cards, change due dates ,and invite users to boards or cards directly within Slack.

This integration really makes life easier for employees as they can choose how to interact with Trello in a way that works best for their own workflows. They’re not forced to constantly bounce back and forth between two platforms for simple checks and reminders. With all these features in mind, we included Trello on our list of the best task management software packages.

Trello landing page highlighting team collaboration in a shared space

Great Value: While some project management tools cost a lot and don’t deliver, Trello takes the opposite approach—it’s affordable yet delivers a lot of bank for your buck. Even if you have no budget, there’s a free-forever plan that comes with unlimited cards and lists as well as up to ten boards per team. So, you can invite your whole team and use it for free, as long as you have fewer than ten boards.

Many businesses stay on the free plan forever because it comes with more than enough. But if you ever need to upgrade, paid plans start at just $5 per user and include unlimited storage, custom fields, and advanced checklists. Simply put, you get a ton of value regardless of the plan you’re on.

Great For Organizations Using Other Atlassian Products: Trello is just one of many tools offered by Atlassian. So for larger teams that are currently using or planning to use other Atlassian cloud products, like Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Jira Work Management, Confluence, or Statuspage, it can fit seamlessly within your suite of tools.

While this isn’t a Trello-specific feature, you can add an Atlassian Access subscription to your plan. This is an enterprise-grade security feature that includes SAML single sign-on and two-factor authentication. For just $4 per user per month, you can get identity and access management tools from a centralized admin console for Trello and all of your Atlassian products.

Versatile Use Cases: Trello is best known for its project management features. But beyond that, it can be used for dozens of other potential use cases. It’s flexible enough to manage editorial calendars, brainstorm new ideas, track and stay up-to-date with team meetings, and track tasks. You can use Trello as an internal resource hub, event project management, tracking and managing clients, and so much more.

While the vast majority of people using Trello rely on it for business and work-related purposes, it’s even versatile enough for personal use cases. It works really well for staying organized for things like planning a wedding or family reunion. This is definitely an area where Trello shines over other project management tools that are strictly for business use.

Perfect For Beginners: For solo users or managing simple projects with small teams, Trello is an easy choice. It’s incredibly easy to set up, and there’s virtually no learning curve—even if you have no prior experience with project management tools.

If you’ve outgrown spreadsheets and unorganized to-do lists for your managing tasks, you can sign up for Trello and move all of your tasks there in less than an hour. It’s even a simple way for individuals to separate work-related tasks from what needs to get done in their personal lives.

What Trello Is Lacking

Limited Project Views: Trello is known for its Kanban boards, making it an excellent option for Kanban project management. Beyond that, Trello’s other project views are fairly limited to similar project management solutions at the same price point.

This is especially true with the entry-level plans, where Kanban is the only view available. This is fine for simple, linear projects that don’t have lots of moving parts. But it’s not ideal for projects that need more granular insights.

Limited Reporting: Unlike other project management tools on the market, Trello does not offer reporting and analytics out-of-the-box. Project managers won’t have the luxury of seeing how their team is performing or getting actionable insights related to the big picture. Trello does offer reporting tools through Power-Ups, but that’s not quite the same as a project management solution within built-in reporting.

Not Ideal For Complex Projects: Trello is great for project visualization and task management through tasks that go through a linear projection. But it lacks features to meet the needs of agile teams that use project management software for daily workflows.

For example, you can’t attach tasks to subtasks, create roadmaps, or review iterations. Trello probably isn’t the best option for complex projects, agile teams, and software developers. (If you need a package that is better at complex projects, check out our breakdown of the best Trello alternatives.)

Lots of Paid Add-Ons: While we like the ability to extend Trello’s capabilities with Power-Ups, it’s worth noting that most of these extensions will cost extra. You won’t necessarily need to add Power-Ups to get the most out of Trello. But if you’re considering these perks while you’re evaluating the tool, just be aware that they’ll add to your total cost.

Screenshot of Trello's Power-Ups page, showing three featured Power-Ups

Hard to Track Multiple Projects Simultaneously: Trello does a great job of organizing each project into its own board. But for those of you who are working on multiple boards at once, it’s not easy to see the status of everything in one place. You do have the option to track all of the cards that you’ve been assigned across all boards. But this isn’t quite the same as seeing a bird’s-eye view of each project or seeing what’s in the pipeline prior to getting assigned to you.

Limited Support: If you’re on a free Trello plan, you’ll need to rely strictly on community forums for support. This isn’t ideal, but it’s tough to complain if you’re not paying anything. However, even Trello’s paid plans don’t come with the highest level of support.

At the Standard tier, support is only available during local business hours. You’ll get 24 hours of support at the Premium tier, but it’s only five days per week. 24/7 support isn’t unlocked until you reach the Enterprise level—which most Trello users aren’t on. While the limited support isn’t a deal breaker, it could be a pain if you need help doing something after hours or over the weekend.

No Native Time Tracking: Tracking time spent on tasks and projects is crucial for managing resources, human capital, project planning, billing, and so much more. Unfortunately, Trello doesn’t provide any built-in time-tracking function. You’ll get this with other Atlassian products, like Jira Software, but not with Trello.

You’ll need to use Trello power-ups to add time-tracking functionality to cards, so it’s still possible to achieve what you’re looking for. But this isn’t quite the same as having it as a built-in function.

Limited Admin Features: Compared to other project management tools on the market, Trello’s administrative features are definitely lacking and somewhat non-existent at certain plan tiers. You’ll have control over the basics—like adding or removing users, converting guests to team members, managing workspace information, and setting boards to public or private.

You won’t get any roles or permission management settings until you reach the Premium tier. Organization-wide permissions aren’t available unless you’re on an Enterprise plan. At the Enterprise level, you get some additional admin features unlocked in the form of a power-up. But overall, you don’t have a ton of administrative control.

Trello Pricing and Options

Trello is a single-product solution for project management. There are four base plans, with various add-ons that can be used to extend the capabilities of your plan. We’ll take a closer look at Trello’s pricing and the specifics of each plan in greater detail below.

Trello Pricing

As previously stated, Trello is one of the most affordable project management tools on the market today. There’s even a free plan for basic use. However, the paid options deliver tremendous value for teams of all sizes. Get a free demo of Trello to find the right plan for you.

Here’s an overview of Trello’s plans and pricing options:

Trello's pricing table showing four plans and prices for each

As you can see, there are plenty of choices to consider. We’ll take a closer look at each plan in greater detail below—so you can determine the best option for your business.

Trello Free

The free plan is great for personal use and small side projects. It comes with unlimited cards, unlimited lists, and 10 MB per file attachment. This package only supports up to ten boards per team, but that’s usually more than enough for personal use.

You also get unlimited Power-Ups per board. That means you can test drive Trello to its fullest extent or even stay on the free plan if your operation is small enough.

Surprisingly, the free plan does support automation. Most project management tools don’t offer automated functionality at a free level, so it’s nice to see that Trello does.

You can run up to 250 commands per month with this automation feature.

Compared to alternatives on the market, Trello’s free plan is arguably the best one. But it is a bit limiting beyond personal use. For business use and teams larger than just a few people, you’ll definitely want to upgrade to a paid package.

You can try one of Trello’s paid packages for free with a 14-day trial. It’s also worth noting that Trello offers discounts for educational institutions and nonprofit organizations. So if you fall into one of those categories, contact Trello for custom discounted pricing.

Trello Standard

Trello Standard is the platform’s entry-level paid pricing tier. It’s the most popular product offering from this provider. With a rate of $5 per user per month, it’s still a bargain and a great value for teams of all sizes.

If you have 10, 20, or 30+ team members, you’ll definitely want to upgrade to this package. It’s also a great option for organizations with several departments that need to manage multiple projects simultaneously. While the free package only supports up to ten boards per team, Trello Business Class offers unlimited boards.

This product comes standard with advanced features and Power-Ups, including custom fields, calendar and map views, advanced checklists, list limits, card repeaters, voting, and over 100 app integrations. It also includes all the basics found in the free tier.

You can create custom fields with Trello’s Standard tier, which is great for businesses that have some specific needs. Customers can store as many files as they want with their accounts, although you have a file size limit of 250 MB per file.

Should you need to give guests access to your Trello board, you can do this in the Standard tier. However, guests will have a limit of using one board within your Trello setup. This can be a great feature if you use freelancers or have clients who need to see a particular board.

If you want to get the most out of Trello’s automation capabilities, you’ll need a Trello Business Class subscription. There are still some restrictions, but it’s more than enough for most teams. You’ll get up to 1,000 command runs per month. Teams of less than 100 running straightforward projects won’t come anywhere near these limits.

Overall, if you’re comparing Trello’s Standard plan with other Kanban-style project management tools for less complex projects, this is the industry leader.

If you’re planning on using Trello beyond personal use for a side project, go with Trello Standard. This will help put you and your team in a position to succeed.

Trello Premium

Trello Premium soups up the features and capability of Trello’s Standard plan. Great for larger teams whom an enterprise-grade solution is overkill, Premium first and foremost takes the restrictions off of automations.

You’re allowed unlimited command runs, meaning you can fine-tune your project management platform to run like a well-oiled machine.

Customizing and stretching the Trello platform to your needs is the name of the game on this package. The Premium tier unlocks additional project views, including:

Dashboard
Timeline
Table
Calendar
Map
Workspace Table
Workspace Calendar

This helps give you and your team a bird’s-eye view of progress from any angle.

You can also create template boards that help you map good, tested processes to other departments or new projects.

The ability to add “observers” to your board is also a nice feature to have. This gives people access to projects but limit their actions within a board, which is useful for cross-department projects or collaboration with parties outside of your organization.

Simply, for $10 per user per month, you get to shape the Trello platform into the form that best suits your company with no limitations. Plus, you’ll benefit from priority support and many other sweet features.

Try it for free by signing up for a 14-day trial.

Trello Enterprise

Trello Enterprise is the top-of-the-line product offering from this provider. It’s designed for larger teams of 50 or more users with advanced needs for project management.

The software starts at $17.50 per user per month, but Trello offers volume discounts for larger teams with more than 250 users. For example, the per-user rate drops to $16.25 per month at 500 users and goes all the way down to $7.38 for 5,000 users.

It’s worth noting that Trello Enterprise doesn’t necessarily accommodate more advanced projects. The software simply adds functionality to simple projects on a larger scale. This is especially true for automation. With Trello Enterprise, you’ll benefit from unlimited command runs across your entire team.

The Enterprise solution also comes with the ability to control content management permissions and manage users in real-time. All of this can be handled with just a few quick clicks. This solution comes with enterprise-grade security and reliability, including a 99.999% uptime commitment.

Some of the other noteworthy features that are only available on Trello Enterprise include:

Data encryption with hourly backups and off-site storage
Organization-wide access restrictions at team and board levels
Attachment restrictions and file sharing preferences
Membership controls
Control which third-party Power-Ups can be integrated with boards
Top-tier enterprise support

Overall, Trello Enterprise is perfect for larger organizations and administrators who want absolute control over and visibility into what happens with their team’s boards. You can check out our reviews of the best Enterprise Project Management software to compare Trello against the top alternatives in this category.

Contact the Trello sales team to get started with an Enterprise plan.

Expanding Your Knowledge: Trello

Is Trello a good project management tool?

Trello is a really good project management tool for beginners and any team that wants to use Kanban boards to manage projects. It’s simple, affordable, and really easy to use for a wide range of project types, including agile project management.

Trello’s simplicity really makes it shine above the crowd in a market that’s saturated with different project management tools. It’s a highly-collaborative project management tool that delivers the best value for the price.

How much does Trello cost?

Trello Standard costs $5 per user per month with annual billing. Trello Premium and Trello Enterprise start at $10 and $17.50 per user per month, respectively. For month-to-month billing, Trello Standard costs $6 per user per month, and Trello Premium costs $12.50 per user per month.

There’s also a free Trello plan that supports the needs of individuals, small teams, and simple projects.

Is Trello really free?

Trello has a totally free plan that’s $0 forever. The 100% free plan comes with unlimited cards, unlimited power-ups, and unlimited storage. Each Trello workspace can have up to ten boards, and you can run up to 250 workspace commands each month.

Trello’s free plan has an unlimited activity log and comes with two-factor authentication. You can customize the backgrounds and add stickers to cards as well. The iOS and Android mobile app is also available to all Trello users, including those who signed up for free.

Is Trello better than Jira?

Trello is better than Jira for Kanban project management and simple projects. Trello is also better than Jira for individuals and teams looking for a versatile project management tool. Jira is highly niche-specific, as it’s designed specifically for agile software development teams. So unless you’re running a team of agile developers, Trello will likely be the better choice for you.

We break down the pros, cons, and differences between these two project management tools in our side-by-side comparison of Trello vs. Jira.

What is better than Trello for project management?

Some businesses may find Monday.com to be better than Trello for project management. That’s because Monday.com is more versatile and feature-packed. ClickUp is better than Trello for remote teams, and Smartsheet is better than Trello for total flexibility with project management. Teamwork and Asana are two additional Trello alternatives to consider.

But Trello is still better than most project management tools for Kanban project management. Check out our full reviews of the best project management software to learn more.

What is Trello best used for?

Trello is best used for projects that follow a linear progression. It’s also ideal for Kanban project management—where tasks still move through a linear flow, but demand can be balanced based on available capacity. Trello is best for visualizing the entire end-to-end flow of a project. Project managers and teams can clearly see what work is in the backlog, what’s in progress, and what’s been accomplished.

Is Trello good for one person?

Trello can be a good option for one person to manage personal tasks and small projects. It’s a free and simple way to set reminders, manage deadlines, and organize tasks.

One person can use Trello to manage both personal and professional projects. For example, it can be used by a single user to plan a family reunion, plan a wedding, or manage a home renovation project. Trello can also be used to manage all tasks and projects at work, and individual users can create different boards to separate personal and business activities.

Can anyone see my Trello board?

Anyone can see your Trello board if the visibility is set to public. Search engines do not index public Trello boards, but anyone who has the link can view public boards—even without a Trello account. Private Trello boards can only be seen by users who have been added as a member. If a Private board is part of a Trello workspace, the board will only be visible to admins.

Admins have the ability to set boards to “private,” “workspace visible,” or “public.” There’s also an “organization visible” option for Enterprise accounts.

How secure is Trello?

Trello is very secure. It’s ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC2 Type 2 certified. Trello also maintains compliance with GDPR and has automatic vulnerability scans every seven days at a minimum.

All user content from Trello is stored in US regions of AWS, and all data transmitted across Trello’s web, desktop, and mobile apps are sent using 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Trello supports SAML 2.0 SSO for enterprise accounts, and all Trello users can enable two-factor authentication to use the platform.

What are the disadvantages of Trello?

Disadvantages of Trello include its limited project views and limited reporting tools. Trello also has some limitations when it comes to managing complex projects.

Trello doesn’t allow you to create roadmaps, review iterations, or attach specific tasks to subtasks. There are no out-of-the-box reporting tools, and Kanban is the only board view option for entry-level subscriptions.

Reviews of the Best Project Management Software

Trello is a top project management solution for small projects. It’s not quite as feature-rich as some of the other tools on the market today, but it’s more than suitable for simple projects. Check out our top picks of the best project management tools to see some popular alternatives to Trello.

If your team has advanced needs for complex projects, you can find a Trello alternative from one of our top recommendations listed above.

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Trello Compared to the Best Project Management Software