Before I dive into this Trello review, it’s worth noting that I’ve been using this platform for years now. It’s one of my favorite tools for managing simple projects and tasks. However, it’s not the most advanced project management solution around.
Trello is an intuitive solution for companies that want a convenient way to manage tasks and deadlines. However, if you want the more advanced project management features of something like Asana, you’ll need to invest in a few add-ons (or Power-Ups).
Here’s my behind-the-scenes review of Trello, designed to help you decide whether it’s the best project management solution for your business.
Quick Verdict, Pros and Cons
Trello is one of the most straightforward and convenient tools I’ve used for task management. It’s a flexible, highly customizable app ideal for teams of all sizes. I particularly love the focus on Kanban project management, which is my preferred approach for managing workflows.
However, the fact that you’ll need to use add-ons for certain things like time tracking and billing could make this platform less appealing to some larger companies with advanced needs.
Pros:
- Incredibly easy to use and intuitive
- Flexible and customizable interface
- Built-in solutions for workflow automation
- More than 200 integration options
- Feature-packed and generous free plan
- Lots of views (beyond Kanban) on premium plans
Cons:
- Requires add-ons for certain features
- No built-in permission settings on free plans
- The standard plan is a little restrictive
Trello Review: The Pricing and Plans
Before I dive into the details of this Trello review, remember that the experience you get on the platform will vary drastically depending on your chosen plan. A lot of the top-end features are reserved for Premium plan users and above. However, you still get an excellent and intuitive experience with any plan.
In fact, the free plan is one of the most generous I’ve seen in this industry. It’s ideal for individuals and smaller teams, offering access to unlimited cards and lists, and 10 team boards. You also get unlimited Power-ups, mobile apps, 2-factor authentication, custom backgrounds and stickers. Plus, there’s unlimited storage (10MB per file), and you can run 250 workspace commands per month.
The premium plans include:
- Standard: $5 per user/month: All the features of the free plan, plus unlimited boards, custom fields, advanced checklists, upgraded storage (250MB per file), 1,000 workspace commands per month, single board guests, and saved searches.
- Premium: $10 per user/month: All the features of Standard, plus new views (map, calendar, dashboard, timeline, table) and new workspace views (table and calendar). You also get unlimited workspace command runs, Atlassian intelligence features, security and admin features, workspace-level templates, project collections, observers, and data exporting.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing starting at $17.50 per user/month: All the features of Premium plus unlimited workspaces, public board management, organization-wide permissions and multi-board guests. You also get Power-up administration, free SSO and provisioning with Atlassian Access, and attachment permission options.
One point worth noting is that you need a minimum of 50 users to access the Enterprise plan. Additionally, you can add the Atlassian Access add-on to any plan for an extra $3 per month/user.
Trello Review: Overview and Core Features
Trello is a Kanban-style task management solution that’s perfect for keeping track of important deadlines. It’s part of Atlassian’s broader spectrum of solutions, like Jira, and integrates seamlessly with dozens of workplace tools like Microsoft Teams.
Let’s take a closer look at the core features.
Project Views and the Kanban Experience
As mentioned above, Trello is a Kanban-first project management app, which is great for people like me, who love organizing tasks using simple cards and columns. On every plan, you can easily break down projects into steps with cards, and assign team members to specific tasks.
I also love the fact that you can see attachments added to cards, as well as how many tasks in a checklist are already done or left to do. You get unlimited cards on every plan, and up to 10 boards per workspace on the free plan (or unlimited on paid plans).
The issue is that you’re really only restricted to Kanban project management on Trello unless you upgrade to a more expensive subscription. Even the “Standard” plan only adds advanced checklists and custom fields to your Kanban boards.
If you do upgrade to the “Premium” plan, however, you will gain access to a range of workspace views (table and calendar), and task views (calendar, timeline, table, dashboard, and map). These additional views will be particularly useful for business leaders who need a comprehensive overview of the progress happening in their organization at a glance.
Notably, though, even on advanced plans, Trello doesn’t support genuine Gantt charts. The calendar view does give you a sort of “miniaturized Gantt chart”, but this doesn’t include dependencies and other advanced features offered by other project management tools.
Role Assignment and Workplace Management
The permission settings in Trello are a little different to what you’d see from other project management solutions. They depend heavily on the plan you choose. For instance, on the free plan, you can manage your personal settings and email notifications yourself, but that’s about it.
Team leaders can also assign employees to tasks with due dates, and you can keep track of your “activity log” in a dedicated space. The Standard plan doesn’t include any upgrades to role assignment and workplace management. However, upgrading to the Premium plan will give you admin and security features.
That means you can choose who creates, deletes, and shares boards. However, you can only control workspace permissions on the enterprise plan. The premium plan also includes an option to create “observers” for boards that can only see content but not contribute anything. However, you can’t add guests until you upgrade to the Enterprise plan.
If you need a lot of administrative control, this means your only real option is the Enterprise subscription. On the plus side, this plan does come with the “Administration Power-Up” built-in, which also allows you to control what kind of power-ups and add-ons your team uses.
