Project Management Software+2 more

Trello
best deal
Try Trello Free - Organize projects with unlimited cards, lists, and members across up to 10 boards per workspace
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Trello
best deal
Try Trello Free - Organize projects with unlimited cards, lists, and members across up to 10 boards per workspace
redeem nowWe start with direct ratings from our readers, then look at what real users are saying in practitioner forums and community spaces. We pair that with search demand data and profession-level persona analysis.
Editorial note: this was originally published in august of 2024
quick take
based on real user feedback, community sentiment, pricing value, and fit for target audience. see our full methodology
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reader ratings shape our score
Trello is a Kanban-style project management tool that's been around long enough to have a genuinely battle-tested free plan. Freelance project managers who think visually and small agile development teams get the most out of it. The key tradeoff is real: it's faster to set up than almost anything else in this category, but it trades depth for simplicity, and you'll feel that gap the moment you need Gantt charts, time tracking, or approval workflows.
The free plan gives you unlimited cards and members with up to 10 boards per workspace. Standard costs $6 per user per month (or $5 billed annually) and unlocks unlimited boards and more automation. Premium, at $12.50 per user per month, adds timeline and dashboard views. Trello runs on web, iOS, and Android. One thing to know before you try it: the Power-Up system that extends Trello's functionality has slot limits on lower tiers, so map out which integrations you need before committing to a plan.
monthly search interest
246k/mo now
Trello's search volume has been drifting down since a January 2024 peak and is now sitting about a third below that high point. This is what a maturing tool looks like when newer, more feature-rich competitors have pulled away some of the consideration set. The core user base is still large and stable enough that Trello isn't going anywhere, but the hype has long passed, which means you're evaluating a settled product rather than a moving target.
Whether Trello is worth it depends almost entirely on what you're actually trying to track and how much your team needs to report on it. Pick your role below to see the honest breakdown.
overall sentiment
select your role to see what people like you are saying
Agile Software Development Team Lead
mixedTrello's Kanban board is a natural fit for sprint task tracking, and the Jira integration means you don't have to abandon your existing dev toolchain. The free tier is enough for a small agile team. The ceiling shows up fast though: no native burndown charts, no velocity tracking, and boards with large card counts get slow during active sprints. Treat it as a lightweight visual layer, not a full sprint management tool.
strengths
concerns
Freelance Project Manager (Visual-Thinking Type)
positiveIf you manage several client projects and think in columns and cards, Trello's free plan covers a lot of ground without asking you to learn complex software or drag clients through onboarding. The problem is Power-Up slots: add a Gantt chart and you've nearly used your allowance, which means time tracking or a reporting tool requires upgrading. Standard at $5 per user per month is worth it once you have more than two or three active clients.
strengths
concerns
Remote Marketing/Creative Team Member
mixedTrello works for content calendars and campaign task tracking, and the Google Drive integration keeps assets close to the tasks they belong to. But once a campaign has dependencies, approval rounds, or a stakeholder who wants a timeline view, Trello starts to feel thin. There's no built-in approval workflow, no version control for design files, and the automation limits mean you're doing a lot of manual updates. It's fine for straightforward campaigns; it gets frustrating for anything with moving parts.
strengths
concerns
Budget-Conscious Small Business Owner
positiveThe free plan is one of the more honest free tiers in project management software: unlimited cards, real collaboration, no time limit. If you're running a small operation with a handful of ongoing projects, you can stay on free for a long time. The upgrade pressure kicks in when you need more than 10 boards or want automation beyond 250 runs a month. At $5 to $6 per user per month on Standard, it's still one of the cheaper options in this category.
strengths
concerns
“The tool sells simplicity, then requires you to bolt on paid add-ons to cover gaps that competitors include by default.”
Community coverage of Trello is fairly thin in terms of independent critical voices, with the most substantive public reviews coming from project management-focused sites rather than large forum threads. The consensus from those sources is that Trello earns its place as the go-to Kanban board for teams that want to get started fast without reading a manual. The visual drag-and-drop interface gets consistent praise. The friction points that come up repeatedly: the free tier caps you at 10 boards per workspace and 250 automation runs a month, which sounds generous until you actually start building workflows. Power-Ups, which Trello uses to add features like Gantt charts, time tracking, and reporting, run out of slots fast on the free plan, and once you need more than a couple, you're looking at the Standard tier at $6 per user per month or the Premium tier at $12.50 to unlock anything meaningful. The general frustration is that the tool sells simplicity, then requires you to bolt on paid add-ons to cover gaps that competitors include by default.
The free plan is genuinely worth using if you're running a small team with up to 10 boards and don't need Gantt charts or automated workflows. The Standard tier at $6 per user per month is reasonable for teams that need unlimited boards and more automation runs. Premium at $12.50 per user per month is harder to justify unless you specifically need timeline and dashboard views built in. If your team needs advanced reporting or approval workflows, you're better off comparing Asana or ClickUp at similar price points before committing.
Trello works best for freelance project managers who think visually and manage multiple clients without needing enterprise reporting, and for small agile software teams that want a lightweight Kanban board alongside Jira. Remote marketing and creative teams get value from it for content calendars and campaign coordination, but they'll run into limitations once campaigns get complex. It's a poor fit for teams that need built-in Gantt charts, time tracking, or detailed stakeholder reporting from day one.
First, the Power-Up system means you're constantly trading slots: add a Gantt chart Power-Up and you've used a slot that could have gone to time tracking or a reporting tool. Second, there's no native burndown chart or velocity tracking, which matters if you're running agile sprints and need to report on team performance. Third, the free plan's 250 automation runs per month sounds adequate until you're running a team with daily recurring tasks. And large boards with hundreds of cards get noticeably slow, which is a real problem during active sprints.
If your team is purely doing software development and you need sprint velocity, burndown charts, and issue tracking built in, Jira is the better call despite its steeper learning curve. Trello wins when you need something a non-technical team member or a client can pick up in ten minutes without training. Many development teams use both: Jira for engineering workflows, Trello for cross-functional project tracking. If you're already paying for Jira, Trello's free tier is a reasonable complement rather than a replacement.
On the free plan, you can share boards with clients and track basic task status, but you can't add a Gantt timeline view, built-in time tracking, or custom reporting without upgrading. If a client needs a visual project timeline for a presentation, you're either screenshotting a board or paying for Premium. For client work that stays simple, the free plan holds up. For anything that involves deadlines across multiple dependencies or billing by hours tracked, you need to budget for at least the Standard tier, plus potentially a third-party time tracking integration.
toolsforhumans editorial team
Reader ratings and community feedback shape every score. Since 2022, ToolsForHumans has helped 600,000+ people find software that holds up after launch. how we research →

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