Trello at a Glance
Trello is a Kanban-style project management software that is intuitive for team members and can help them keep track of important deadlines.
Each card lets you add various elements that are needed to finish a project. Since the Kanban boards are easy to use, and you can add team members, everyone can keep track of how much each individual team member is doing. This allows teams to delegate accordingly. It has a desktop interface and mobile application, which allows for flexibility.
When creating a Trello card, there are many things you can add in addition to a name and basic project description. You can assign the task to a point person, add files (under 10MB in size for the free version) and add it to a label that corresponds to whatever categorization system your team has decided upon. You can also turn a Trello card into a template for future use if it’s a recurring project.
These cards are best for simple projects that move through a few stages. The cards can be unwieldy for larger projects that have a ton of interlocking pieces, but you can create individual boards for these if needed.
Featured Partners
1
monday.com
Yes
From $8 monthly per user
Zoom, LinkedIn, Adobe, Salesforce and more
2
HubSpot
Yes
Available
Google Contacts, Mailchimp, Xero, Aircall, Airtable and more
3
Smartsheet
Yes, for one user and two editors
$7 per user per month
Google Drive, Slack, Tableau, Miro, Zapier and more
4
ClickUp
Yes, for unlimited members
$7 per month
Slack, Microsoft Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Timely, Google Drive and more
What Sets Trello Apart
While there are many popular project management tools on the market, Trello offers a simpler approach to task management with hybrid team coordination. It makes it easier for teams to manage tasks, collaborate on projects and stay organized.
Trello has rich project management features such as boards, labels and lists and provides a visually appealing intuitive platform for users of all skill levels looking for easy task management. Trello stands out from its competitors in terms of being easily adaptable and effective when it comes to collaborative project management.
Pros
The nice thing about Trello is its capability of managing several projects with several people working from different physical locations. It provides a single platform that allows collaboration and planning between users. It’s an adaptable web-based platform, meaning it can be used on multiple devices as well as platforms such as Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. It is great for small teams that need an efficient way to manage tasks and lists and it’s easy to use even for novice users.
Cons
If you have a larger team that is working on more complex projects, then you might want to look into alternative project management tools as Trello is more suitable for smaller teams with simpler tasks. If you’re looking for a truly free system, Trello’s basics are still effective, but you might feel the need to level up for more capabilities. The limits on file uploads and automations will probably push you into the paid plans once you start using those features.
If you want to track budgets, invoices or billing, you can’t use Trello. Those will have to be separate. If you have a project that needs very careful budgeting for specific line items, you might want to look into a different software.
In terms of security and privacy, Trello offers good security to small businesses. However, your member profile will be made public, but you do have the ability to make boards and workspaces private. When working on a sensitive or confidential project, everyone should pay extra attention to making their boards private so they’re not surprised when they show up on online searches by accident.
Trello Core Features
Trello’s board provides users with a wide range of features. Here we have listed five core features that make Trello a powerful project management solution:
- Views: View team projects from every angle with board, timeline, table, calendar, dashboard, map and workspace views. Additional views require a Premium or Enterprise account.
- Automate: Automate your workflow with Butler. Create rules, buttons and commands to automate almost any action in Trello.
- Power-Ups: Add featured Power-Ups including Card Repeater, Slack, Jira, two-way Card Mirror & Sync by Placker, Timeline, Calendar, Time Tracking by Planyway, Time in List by Blue Cat, Gmail, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, List Limits, Read Me and Voting.
- Templates: Copy and customize templates with templates from the Trello community. Featured categories include business, design, education, engineering, marketing, project management and remote work.
- Integrations: Trello offers 186 integrations, allowing your team to use apps that they have already been using or discover new ways to get work done.
Other Benefits
Trello also lets you add “Power-Ups” (plugins) to personalize your Trello experience. Many of the Power-Ups come at an additional cost from third-party sellers, but the Power-Ups created by Trello itself are all free to add.
You can also use Workspace commands that make automatic changes for you. On the Free plan, you can only get 250 Workspace automations, but with the Premium plan, you’ll get unlimited automations. Aptly named “Butler,” this system can reduce the number of manual steps your team members need to take.
For example, clicking a single button can apply a label to a card, move it to a new column and add a comment to the card that tags another team member. When integrated with third-party software, Butler can even send pre-written messages to a Slack channel.
Trello Pricing and Plans
There are four pricing tiers for Trello, the Free plan, the Standard plan, the Premium plan and the Enterprise plan. For an even more extensive breakdown, read our Forbes Advisor Trello pricing plan guide, Trello Pricing Plans.
Free Plan
Trello’s free plan is perfect for any individual as well as smaller teams who are just getting started or looking to organize any project. It allows users to use the service for free and manage up to 10 team boards, with unlimited cards and lists. It also includes unlimited storage (10MB per file), unlimited Power-Ups and unlimited activity log.
The free plan also supports automation that allows you to run up to 250 commands per month. Trello’s free plan is an excellent choice for those who need a simple yet effective project management tool without the added cost of advanced functionality.
In addition, Trello Free allows workspace members to invite other members to join the workspace, edit the workspace profile and change settings of shared collaboration space.
Take note, the free plan only includes community support, which is the only access you will have to any customer support.
Standard Plan
Trello’s Standard plan is $5 a month per user when billed annually, or $6 per user month to month. It is best for small teams that need to manage and grow collaboration. It is a great option for teams that need additional features on their Trello boards, but don’t need any Workspace admin controls.
It includes everything in the Free plan plus unlimited boards, unlimited storage (250MB per file), advanced checklist, custom fields, single board guests, saved searches and 1,000 workspace command runs per month. The Standard plan is an affordable upgrade from the Free plan and it’s a great option for teams that need to manage multiple projects at the same time.
Customer support on the Standard plan is during local business hours only.
Premium Plan
Trello’s Premium plan is $10 a month per user when billed annually, or $12.50 per user month to month. It is best for teams that need to keep track of multiple projects and view them in multiple ways, including boards, timelines, calendars and maps. Trello Premium includes privacy controls and other administrative permissions, which are useful for businesses that want more control over their boards and data. If you are planning on upgrading to Premium, Trello includes a 20-minute user guide to walk you through your transition. It includes everything in the Standard plan as well as unlimited command runs, allowing you to fine-tune your project.
The Premium plan includes a 20-minute online tour and a free 14-day trial as well as 24/5 premium support.
Enterprise Plan
Trello’s Enterprise plan starts at $17.50 a month per user when billed annually, for an annual total price of $210 per user. The Enterprise plan is for businesses with 50 seats or more with a $10,000 per year minimum spend threshold. Trello Enterprise can hold multiple Workspaces allowing large organizations to connect work across teams with additional security and controls. The Enterprise plan includes everything in the Premium plan plus unlimited Workspaces, multi-board guests, organization-wide permissions, organization-visible boards and 24/7 Enterprise admin support.
The Enterprise plan also has SAML SSO VIA Atlassian Access, which is a separate subscription that you can use with all your Atlassian products starting at $4 a month per user.
To find out more about Enterprise options, you’ll have to get in touch with its sales representatives to discuss what’s best for your business needs. You’ll do this by filling out its online contact form.
Setup and Customization
Getting started with Trello is easy as the program provides a step-by-step guide to walk you through everything you need to know. Its program consists of nine chapters that walk new users through everything they need to know about how to set up and use Trello, from building your first project to automations and admin controls.
Ease of Use
Trello is known to have a very user-friendly interface that makes it easy to use. You can do a lot with a single click as well as move or organize cards around just by dragging and dropping. It’s simple to add details to cards and create lists either for yourself or for members.
You can collaborate in real time so that all members see updates, eliminating any confusion between users so that everyone can see who is doing what and when. This is especially useful for remote team members.
Trello also gives you the ability to create custom team templates that you can use over and over again so you don’t have to spend time starting over from scratch. To top it off, Butler suggests automations based on analyzing your activity on a Trello board.
Trello can also be easily accessed by your mobile phone and you don’t need a lot of technological knowledge to use Trello on a basic level. Trello stands out for its integration, collaboration and automation functionality.
However, on the flip side, some users feel that if you don’t organize and label your tasks properly, it can become a bit chaotic and a bit difficult to track your progress. It also has limited storage for the basic users and may be difficult to manage a very large team globally.
Security
Trello provides extensive security measures to protect its users’ data as well as how users can protect their own data. The company strives to meet privacy standards and maintain confidentiality and security awareness for its customers. Let’s take a look at some ways Trello provides a secure experience:
- Trello is Certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant. This security standard protects cardholders’ data used for online payments.
- Trello takes responsibility for disaster recovery of the entire platform. Trello runs an encrypted full backup every 24 hours.
- Trello is FedRAMP authorized, which is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services.
- Trello provides data encryption in transit and at rest. “In transit” is when the encrypted data is actively moving between devices and networks—for example, internet, cloud, email, etc. When data is “at rest,” it is defined as not being active or in use.
- Trello performs weekly vulnerability scans and penetration tests.
- ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27018 certified, which is the world’s best-known standard for information security management systems and their requirements and helps to manage the security of all assets within an organization and provide protection of personally identifiable information.
- SAML 2.0 SSO, for Enterprise customers, is a widely accepted way to communicate and authenticate a user’s identity to cloud service providers.
- Internal review from Atlassian’s security intelligence team.
With that said, Trello does not provide customers with the ability to host Trello on a private server, or to use Trello in another infrastructure in any other way. Third-party application policies and procedures are not controlled by Trello, and its privacy policy does not address how third-party applications may use your information.
Customer Service and Support
Unfortunately, Trello does not provide phone support and only provides support through email by filling out a contact support form online. We were not able to find a direct email address to the support team and were directed to the Trello support page and asked to log in.
On the upside, it does have an extensive support community. Trello has a host of resources likely to answer many of your questions including how to get started with Trello, how to use it, how to manage your account and FAQs about billing and licensing and any troubleshooting questions.
One great thing about Trello is the community support forum. This gives you the ability to join in on discussions with other users, ask questions, read articles and receive notification updates on new features. In addition, Trello offers a complete guide to walk you through everything you need to know including how to use Trello Enterprise.
Customer service support is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time through email only.
Advanced Trello Features
Butler Automation: Butler is Trello’s built-in workflow automation. It makes it easy for users to automate just about any action on a Trello board. It requires no coding and you can set up any automation in seconds. Butler is available to all users and includes advanced features in the Premium and Enterprise plans.
Keyboard Shortcuts: With the Trello keyboard, you can navigate, create, edit and assign just about anything. Just by pressing one key, you can see all your assigned cards instantly.
Colorful Card Covers: You can get creative with your Trello cards and boards by either uploading your own photos or using the Unsplash Gallery to set a front cover display on your Trello cards. You can even upload team member photos so each team member gets their own card.
Advanced Checklist: Map out all moving parts with the advanced checklist. This feature gives team members a clear understanding of who is working on what and what needs to be assigned, reviewed and completed. This feature is available with the Standard plan.
Dark Mode: Dark mode provides visual support for individuals who have sensitivity to light or just want to work at night without the glaring disruption of an iPhone, iPad, iPod or Android.
Trello Alternatives and How They Compare
Trello vs. monday.com
There’s a free version on monday.com, but it’s only for individuals looking to keep track of their work and the service is only available for up to two team members. The monday.com platform is best for larger projects with complex workflows and multiple teams working together, versus Trello, which is ideal for managing projects that need to stay organized and require collaboration from multiple people.
Trello vs. Asana
Trello and Asana are two very popular project management tools. The key difference between the two is that Trello is simpler and more suitable for small teams, while Asana is more complex and suitable for larger teams.
Trello has strong project management features and a user-friendly interface, and it’s easy to set up so you can start projects immediately. Asana offers more complexity as it allows you to build project plans and timelines in addition to Kanban boards. Asana gives you access to multiple project views such as timelines, progress trackers and file galleries. If you are a smaller team looking for simpler project management tools, Trello might be a better choice. For more information, check out the complete breakdown of Trello vs Asana.
Trello vs. Basecamp
Trello and Basecamp are both great project management tools for the not-so-tech-savvy, and if your team only has a few users, Trello can be a top-notch solution. As for Basecamp, it takes an all-in-one, unified and organized approach, making it best for teams of at least 10 people. Basecamp also does not offer a free version like Trello, and its most basic package runs $15 per user, per month (billed monthly) with 500GB of storage.
Featured Partners
1
monday.com
Yes
From $8 monthly per user
Zoom, LinkedIn, Adobe, Salesforce and more
2
HubSpot
Yes
Available
Google Contacts, Mailchimp, Xero, Aircall, Airtable and more
3
Smartsheet
Yes, for one user and two editors
$7 per user per month
Google Drive, Slack, Tableau, Miro, Zapier and more
4
ClickUp
Yes, for unlimited members
$7 per month
Slack, Microsoft Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Timely, Google Drive and more
Who Is Trello Best For?
Trello is great for small businesses that are looking for an accessible, free system to get started. There are free software integrations common for small businesses, including Google Drive, Slack and Salesforce. It would be easy to integrate a free Trello account into your already existing business operations. It is especially useful for freelance and small business projects because of its visually appealing interface, making it easy to organize and keep track of tasks.
If you’re working with large file sizes (such as a design firm passing files back and forth for proofreading), the free version wouldn’t be ideal because of the 10MB file size limit. Upgrading Trello to upload large files means you can also integrate more automations.
Our Experience/Expert Take
We find Trello to be a platform that offers incredible value, especially for the many features included in the free version. It’s very adaptable, intuitive and user-friendly even for the nontechnical users. If you are working with larger projects with more advanced needs, you might want to look at some alternatives, but overall, Trello is a solid project management tool.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Trello used for?
Trello is used for project management (PM) and team cross-collaboration. If there is a project that your team is working on with multiple deadlines and stakeholders, PM software like Trello is great for keeping up with everything. Trello is used by teams that need to lay out the tasks and responsibilities in an easy-to-read fashion so they can stay on top of them.
What is the difference between Slack and Trello?
While Slack has software integrations and the ability to schedule things like Trello, it is primarily chat software. Trello uses Kanban-style cards to track projects. A card includes all of the pieces of the project, as well as deadlines, so the team can see where it stands. Trello allows Slack as a software integration so a team can view projects and chat at the same time.
Does Trello have dashboards?
Trello has launched a Dashboard view for users to look at multiple data sets. Dashboards are good for analytics reporting and presentations.
Can you run reports in Trello?
Using its system called Butler, you can pull reports from Trello and present them. You can use the Butler to create automated status update emails to go to your team through Trello.
What is the best project management software for small businesses?
Companies should choose the best project management software based on their needs and budget. However, monday.com is a very popular project management software among small businesses for its breadth of features, price and available free version. Read about the 15 Best Project Management Software to learn more.
