Trello Review: Can It Help Organize Your Projects?

Trello is all about helping teams to simplify their work. And with more than 50 million users worldwide, the golden oldie must be doing something right. But is it still a good project management choice in 2024?

We comprehensively evaluated and tested Trello and will let you know how the platform fares.

Trello* is a cloud-based project management tool developed in 2011 by Fog Creek Software and unveiled at the "TechCrunch Disrupt" conference. These days, Trello is owned by the Australian software developer Atlassian.

Highly versatile, Trello's marketers claim that it "brings all your tasks, teammates, and tools together". Whether you're a casual user, a freelancer, or a large business, the tool will help arrange your meetings, deadlines, and projects.

Trello is web-based and can be used in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. It also has desktop clients for Windows and macOS and Android and iOS apps. We used Trello in Chrome and Windows.

To get started, you'll need a Trello account. You don't have to pay for this as in addition to its paid subscriptions, Trello also offers a free version (more on Trello's subscription prices further down).

You can try a premium subscription for up to two weeks without providing payment details, however, if you do, the trial extends to 30 days. To start any trial, pick the subscription you'd like to try and click on "Create your first Workspace".

After you create your account, a brief tutorial walks you through Trello's basic features. Then, you can start managing your Workspace.

Like every project management tool, Trello consists of multiple elements and screens that you'll use to organize your projects. The highest hierarchy level is the Workspace: This is a closed area where you and your team's projects are displayed.

Workspaces, in turn, consist of three elements:

You can create new lists and cards on a board in seconds. For cards, all you have to do is name them, after which you can edit other details, like members, attachments, or locations, with a single click. More on this in our next subchapter.

You'll move cards from one list to another by dragging and dropping them. Once a task is complete, slide it to the next phase.

Visualize your Trello board, and look at your project from different perspectives, using one of the six available views. These are:

There are two more "Workspace Views", however, these are optimized versions of the standard Table and Calendar options. Each offers an overview that extends beyond a single board and shows your account's cards.

Several of Trello's competitors provide more views. We would have liked to see a mind map, milestone, or gallery view. With that said, the most important options are included.

Below, we've prepared a table comparing Trello's views to those found in the other services from our sample:

There is a Trello mobile app: Android and iOS users can benefit from the simplified Kanban display and easy creation of cards and boards on the go. Cards can be edited as usual and moved between lists.

Not all of Trello's features made it into the mobile app. For more complex undertakings, you'll need a desktop anyway. Like most project management mobile apps, it's good for checking in and small adjustments, but that's about it.

Trello's biggest strength is its user-friendliness. Even though Workspaces can be customized and adjusted to meet all sorts of requirements, the basics are easy to grasp and shouldn't take long to internalize, even for newcomers.

Its Kanban-based board view is intuitive, new lists are easily created, and management and navigation are straightforward.

There aren't any significant onboarding challenges with Trello, however, more views wouldn't hurt its ease of use, especially since most are available only with a premium subscription anyway.

Once you understand Trello's basics, you can customize your Workspace and use it to plan your projects and tasks.

To create a new task (Card) click on the "Add Card" button within one of your lists. For now, all you have to do is name the card.

If you click on the card again, a detailed view will open in which you can edit the task further. Here, you can add members, labels, a checklist, dates, attachments, or a description to your card, and many other attributes.

All elements are listed under the "Add to card" heading. Below this, you'll see "Power-Ups", which you can add to your task. These are integrations for external apps, like Slack or Gmail.

Underneath Power-Ups, there's an option to add automations (more on this in the "Additional Features" section below).

Apart from the listed attributes you can add custom fields to your tasks. These include checkboxes, dates, dropdown menus, and numbers. Click "Custom Fields" and add one of the suggested options or a new field.

Trello covers the most important fields and allows users to customize their tasks (cards) with attributes and integrations.

Overall though, Trello comes with less out of the box than most of its competitors. For example, you won't find percentages, currencies, or formulas among the custom field options.

Here, we've provided a comparison of Trello's field features:

Unfortunately, Trello doesn't include all the card options that we like to see. For example, it isn't possible to establish dependencies between tasks (such as preventing a certain task from being started before another is completed).

Classic subtasks, which represent smaller steps of cards, also can't be created. The only option is to set up a checklist within a card. Milestones also need to be configured manually.

Still, you can use these features thanks to automations and Power-Ups, however, doing so is far more complex than with other software that offers native solutions.

There's no denying it: Trello is a tool built around the Kanban method. If you'd like to visualize the "big picture" for projects and keep an eye on things, you'll have a very intuitive platform at your fingertips.

For everyone else, especially those who would like to tinker with the details and dependencies of their tasks and subtasks, Trello is less suitable.

Trello is for both individuals and teams. For the latter, you can invite team members to your entire Workspace or specific boards.

To invite someone to your Workspace, click on the plus symbol next to "Members" in the menu, or open the Members area and click on the blue "Invite Workspace members" button.

You can invite people by email address, Trello username, or a share link.

Workspace members are assigned one of two roles: Admin or regular user. The latter can create and edit boards within a Workspace, however, they cannot adjust Workspace settings.

Alternatively, you can grant users access to certain boards. To do this, click on the "Share" button in the upper right of the board you're in and invite the person you'd like to share the board with.

There are three types of members for this:

You can jointly work on projects with your team in Trello, however, this isn't its specialty. It's possible to share Workspaces and boards with teammates and communicate with them within a task (type @ followed by their name to tag them).

Real-time collaboration through private messages, chat, joint document editing, or whiteboards isn't possible. There are external solutions, however, other programs (like Basecamp, Teamwork, or ClickUp) offer native versions of these features.

Below, we've prepared a comparison of Trello's collaboration features to those of the other services from our sample:

Trello probably shouldn't be at the top of your list if you're looking for a project management tool with many collaboration features. You can share tasks and projects with team members and jointly edit them, but you'll need a Power-Up or another program for everything else.

It might seem like Trello's features are somewhat basic, however, the platform is far more versatile than it looks. In terms of automations in particular, Trello has a surprise or two up its sleeve.

When it comes to automations, Trello is solid. Even though they're intended for more advanced users, setting up automations is as intuitive and user-friendly as the rest of the platform.

Click on the three-dot menu in the upper right of your board and select "Automation" to access the automation area.

There are multiple types of automations

Many features that Trello doesn't have a native solution for, like task dependencies, can be configured with custom automations.

Automations are included in all Trello subscriptions, however, both the free version and the Standard plan limit how many users can execute. Premium and Enterprise users also have to contend with limitations, however, most users won't notice these.

Would you like to use other tools with Trello or have access to additional features that the platform doesn't offer? If so, look through Trello's Power-Ups for a suitable integration.

These are grouped into categories like "Analysis and Reporting", "Communication and Collaboration", or "Data Management" and offer plenty of important features like time tracking (Harvest), whiteboards (Miro), or messaging (Slack).

There's a lot to choose from and no limit on the number of Power-Ups you can add. Some integrations are premium only, however.

Thanks to automations and Power-Ups you can personalize Trello to your needs and requirements, adding nearly every feature expected from a project management platform.

Some of the features that other programs include out of the box, like reporting, time tracking, or form creation, aren't included.

Here, we've prepared an overview of all advanced features Trello offers compared to the other project management software we evaluated:

If you factor in integrations and automations, Trello's breadth of features is solid, however, the program could offer much more out of the box.

Trello's website has plenty of useful guides and support resources for beginners. These feature screenshots and hyperlinks to illustrate and demonstrate key concepts and tools.

There are comprehensive webinars, searchable FAQs, and a well-visited user forum, where anyone can pose or answer questions.

We found answers for most of the questions that came up during our review on Trello's website.

Direct support is only offered via a support ticket, and there isn't a support hotline or live chat. Trello, like many, seems to prefer that its users answer questions on their own before reaching out for help.

With that said, we only had to wait 30 minutes for an answer from Trello's support team. They answered our questions and directed us to relevant articles in the support center for further information.

Overall, we had a very satisfying experience with Trello's support team. Still, more contact options would be nice.

Trello has four subscriptions: Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. For each of the paid options, you'll pay per user, per month.

Below, we've provided a comparison of Trello's subscriptions:

Trello is among the most affordable solutions on the market. Below, we chose the subscription price from each provider we reviewed which includes 10 users and unlimited projects.

Actual costs depend entirely on the number of users, the subscription you select, and which features you need:

Trello offers discounted rates for educational organizations and non-profits. There's also a free trial version, which you can test for 14 days (without payment information) or 30 days (with payment information).

Trello is a particularly user- and beginner-friendly project management platform. It's ideal for small and medium-sized teams that want to visualize their projects in Kanban style and stay on top of tasks, to-dos, and team capacity.

Users get different views, powerful automations, and access to plenty of extensions and integrations, all of which make the platform much more flexible than it might appear at first glance.

Unfortunately, Trello isn't as versatile as other solutions: Many features that are standard elsewhere (real-time collaboration, time tracking, and reporting) can only be added to Trello through integrations.

In addition, if you're unfamiliar with Kanban or would like to indicate dependencies and create subtasks when managing projects, you'll need to configure them manually with Trello's automations.

Trello's users appear to be very satisfied with the program. We reviewed verified reviews on reputable aggregators and noted the following feedback:

Is Trello's focus on Kanban and its limited selection of custom fields a dealbreaker for you? If so, monday might be a good alternative: The platform is just as user-friendly, but much more flexible. Keep in mind that it's designed for teams, however.

Or maybe you want to customize projects with dependencies, subtasks, milestones, and goals? In that case, Asana and ClickUp are worth checking out.

You can find more alternatives to Trello here: